300-pound turtle rescued along SRA1A

An extremely large "pedestrian" on State Road A1A had to be helped back to the beach Friday morning.

A 300-pound green sea turtle crawled over the dunes and through a field across from Patrick Air Force Base before trying to cross S.R. A1A, said Heather Pepe of Wild Florida Rescue, a non-profit 24-hour wildlife rescue service in Melbourne.

"The hatchlings cross A1A all the time" Pepe said. "I've been working with sea turtles for 20 years, but I've never seen one that size reach A1A. It was still dark outside when someone called the Sheriff's Office, and plenty of people were on their way to work. it's fortunate she wasn't hit."

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Air Force officers from the base and firefighters, along with members of Wild Florida, worked together to take the turtle off the road and move it back to the beach.

A motorist called 911 before dawn Friday about the turtle. Pepe, whose group rescues wildlife in Brevard County, said she was called by the Sheriff's Office about 6:15 a.m. with a request to pick up the turtle. She routinely rescues small soft shell turtles, but she wasn't told of the size of the green sea turtle that had wandered onto A1A just north of the Pineda Causeway.

"The guys from the Air Force were there already," Pepe said. "It took six of them to lift it into the back of a pickup."

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The turtle, which was at least 25 years old, was not injured, Pepe said. The group relocated it back to the beach.