Prosthetic fin for endangered green sea turtle helps it swim again

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A green sea turtle that was found in 2009 with badly injured flippers in the Mediterranean sea has regained its ability to swim after an Israeli team designed a prosthetic fin for it.

The turtle is named "Hofesh," the Hebrew word for "freedom." When the turtle was found, its two left flippers were so badly damaged that scientists had no choice but to amputate them.

Yaniv Levy, director of Israel's Sea Turtle Rescue Center, said that they first tried to help the animal by putting a diver's fin on it, but it only got in the way when the turtle tried to swim.

Shlomi Gez, an industrial design student at Jerusalem's Hadassah College who learned about Hofesh through the Internet, then designed a prosthetic fin similar to the dorsal fin of a fish for the turtle. The new fin improved Hofesh's swimming ability, but he was still unable to easily emerge to the surface of water properly to breathe.

Gez then decided to model a new prosthetic after the design of Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor fighter jet. Gez made two fins that keep the turtle relatively balanced and allowed it swim to the water's surface properly.

"I discovered it worked better than one fin on the back," Gez explained. "With two fins, he keeps relatively balanced, even above the water."

However, Levy says Hofesh will never be able to return to the wild.

Hofesh shares a tank with a blind female turtle named Tsurit. Researchers hope the pair will mate to potentially add to the local population of the endangered green sea turtles.

Levy says the two turtles are estimated to be between 20 and 25 years old, approaching the age of sexual maturity.

"We have great plans for this guy," Levy said.

"They will never go back to the wild, but their offspring will be released the minute they hatch and go immediately into the sea and live normally in the wild," he added.

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