Giant sea turtle washed ashore with propeller injury dies

A 582-pound leatherback sea turtle washed ashore this weekend, suffering from injures that looked like she'd sustained by being hit by a boat propeller.

The sea turtle was still alive when boaters found her, but she had been hurt pretty badly.

Boaters called FWC who alerted Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol.

Kevin Brown showed up to help.

He said it is rare to see a leatherback in the river and that a bunch of boaters ran over to help him get the turtle to a hospital.

“We kept pressure on the damaged areas and we got a blanket, towel, wet them, put them over the top of her,” said Brown.

Because she was so big, 8-10 people had to help lift her into Brown's truck.

He says he took her to a turtle hospital on Jekyll Island, but doctors knew she wouldn’t survive her injuries.

“There was too much damage in her -- too much internal organ damage and they did end up euthanizing her,” said Brown.

Cox Media Group