It might appear that this Sea turtle is in bad shape.
But what it is doing is totally normal. And it is in perfectly good health and that isn’t blood.
They do this because they chew with their esophagus.
And because, in the summer and spring, one of their delicacies begins growing on the seafloor:
It is called red limu.
When sea turtles chew the food up, they frequently swallow lots of seawater. If it starts to pile up in their stomach, they will often come onshore to expel the seawater from their gut.
If they have had a lot of red seaweed or red limu, it is often red. This leads to frequent calls to animal services, with pedestrians panicking that the sea turtle is very sick.
It isn’t :) but it is sweet to know that people care.
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