An unusual visitor on the Cape

By Anne Baker, Globe Correspondent

The Cape had an unusual visitor from the open ocean last night. A dead leatherback sea turtle weighing several hundred pounds washed ashore at Popponesset Beach in Mashpee, a spokesman for the New England Aquarium said.

Tony LaCasse said leatherbacks are an endangered species. This one was six to seven feet across and had been dead for a long period of time. It was missing its head and had been apparently struck by a boat, but it was not clear if the animal had been struck before or after it died. The body was too decomposed for an autopsy to be performed, he said.

A biologist from the University of New Hampshire, which is working with the aquarium and the Massachusetts Audubon Society to research the turtles, took tissue samples and measured the body before it was removed from the beach, LaCasse said.

It's unusual for a leatherback to wash ashore on a Massachusetts beach because they stay in the open water where they feed on sea jellyfish, LaCasse said. Some discovered leatherbacks have weighed as much as a ton.

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