A routine beach check in the Cayman Islands turned into a turtle rescue after volunteers found a large green female sea turtle trapped in a swimming pool at Rum Point.

In a Facebook post, the Cayman Islands Department of Environment said the 400-pound turtle had to be lifted from the pool by conservation officials and members of the islands’ “Turtle Team.”

“Getting a 400-pound turtle safely out of a swimming pool is no small feat,” the Facebook post from the DoE said, “but the team removed her, checked and tagged her, and released her back to sea.”

The department said the turtle was not in ill health.

The DoE said rescues like this are “not all that unusual during nesting season.”

“Female turtles come ashore at night to nest. Artificial light on the beach, or the removal of natural coastal vegetation, can leave them disoriented and cause them to crawl into developed areas instead of returning to the sea,” the Facebook post explained. “If they reach a swimming pool with its edge at ground level, they can fall in and become trapped.”

Rescuers believe that is what happened to this turtle.

The department said artificial light can also affect hatchlings. Baby sea turtles have an instinctive “sea finding” behavior that helps them crawl toward the lowest and brightest horizon, usually the ocean reflecting moon and starlight. The DoE said artificial light sources from development on the beach, or flashlights, can interrupt that process and redirect the turtles.

The department urged beachfront properties to help protect nesting turtles by retaining and restoring native coastal vegetation, reducing artificial light visible from the beach, moving beach furniture and small watercraft off the active beach overnight, designing new elevated pools or installing effective barriers around ground-level pools, and never leaving ground-level pools empty or without suitable fencing during nesting season.

The DoE also said beach-goers and tourists can help by keeping beaches flat and easy to navigate and reducing their own sources of artificial light.

“This turtle is safely back at sea,” the DoE reported. “Practical beachfront management can help keep more nesting turtles out of danger.”

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