A two-metre-long turtle has reportedly washed onto a beach in Calella, near Barcelona on the northeast coast of Spain.
The apparently dead leatherback turtle, which reportedly weighs 700kg, was filmed being removed from the beach with a crane.
It is reportedly the second leatherback turtle, or Dermochelys Coriacea, to wash ashore on the Spanish coast in the past month, after fisherman in Vilanova i la Geltrú found a 300-kilogramme dead at the beginning of September.
Si ghtings of t he giant turtles in th e M editerranean are rare, with only ten be ing sp otted in the last 2,000 years, biologists to ld La Vanguardia .
T he giant tu rtles prefer tropical and subtro pical waters and ar e us ually fo und in South America , according to the newspaper.
Pere Alzina, a biologist from Arenys de Mar, told the paper “we could have the great surprise of finding a leatherback turtle nest in the Mediterranean".
Dermochelys Coriacea is the largest species of turtle on earth and are one of the deepest-diving marine reptiles.
The turtle that was found in Calella will be taken to the Autonomous University of Barcelona, where it will undergo testing.
