Taking a walk along the Gournes beachfront last month, local residents Joop and Eipriede de Rinter spotted a huge turtle, seemingly in distress in the shallow, rocky surf.

Remembering The Khronicles’ stories concerning the plight of Cretan turtles, they called the newspaper for assistance, and this reporter rushed to the scene.

Unfortunately, it was too late – the fully-grown Caretta Caretta, about a meter long, was already dead, only the rise and fall of the surf making it appear active.

The CretAquarium in Gournes was called, and a crew was immediately dispatched to pick up the turtle and return it to the aquarium for an autopsy.

“When found, it had been dead for about two days,” said Head Aquarist Aspasia Sterioti, who is in charge of all of the aquarium’s marine life. “It was not hit by a boat. It had been very sick due to a pathological problem . . . more precisely a bad liver, which we sent to an institute in Naples for further study.”

She said the Caretta Caretta had been a female more than 10 years old.