Mumbai, July 2 (IANS) A rare loggerhead sea turtle - usually not spotted near India - was found entangled in a fishing net along the Mumbai coast Wednesday, in the second such instance this week. A fisherman from the Colaba fishing village in south Mumbai found the animal in his net and handed it over in an injured state to the Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for animals in Parel in south central Mumbai in the afternoon. It was identified there as a loggerhead sea turtle.

J.C.Khanna, secretary of the Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSPCA), told IANS: “The fishermen immediately reported this to us and we rushed to take note of the rescued marine turtle.”

The loggerhead turtle was about two feet in length, one and a half feet wide and weighed around 200 kg.

“The front legs of the turtle were injured and its shell had developed a crack,” he added.

He said so far two loggerhead turtles have been rescued from the city coastline. “We rescued one turtle from Juhu beach in north Mumbai late Sunday night.”

Khanna feels these turtles might have been washed away by ocean currents to the Mumbai coastline.

According to BSPCA, these turtles are normally not spotted on the Indian coast. Loggerhead turtles usually nest and move around the Mediterranean and the US where their largest concentration is near Florida.