Beating all odds, this Loggerhead turtle is recovering nicely after being shot in the head with a spear and with the help of community outcry, perhaps the culprits will be caught. An increasing reward is being offered and currently sits at $10,750 cash and other items offered by community members.

"The whole community is so up in arms about it," said Richie Moretti, who founded the Turtle Hospital in Marathon in 1986.

The victim is a sub adult, 15 to 18 years old. Although the turtle is too young for its gender to be determined, its rescuers named it Sara, after a family member who was celebrating her 18th birthday.

Doug Mader, an expert reptile veterinarian who removed the four-foot, steel-shafted spear, said Sara is one lucky turtle.

The story began on Aug. 3, when father and son Charlie and Nicholas Borg, vacationing from Michigan, were returning to Big Pine Key from a fishing trip in the Atlantic. They spotted something floating, with flippers in the air, near Little Palm Island.

As they got closer, they discovered it was a sea turtle with a long spear protruding from its face. "I've seen turtles before that were hit by boats, but that was not anything I expected to see," said Nicholas Borg, 22.

"At first we thought it was dead, but it pulled its head up, took a breath and dove back down," he added. "We both looked at each other and knew we needed to do something."

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He expects that Sara will be well enough to be released back into the wild within a month or so.

"I don't think it will have any permanent injuries, just a great story to tell its kids," Mader said.

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