Ancient sea turtle housed at Boston aquarium for more than 50 years passes another physical

BOSTON (AP) — Apparently, it's pretty easy being green after all.

That was the takeaway from Tuesday's physical examination of Myrtle, an ancient green sea turtle that has delighted visitors to the New England Aquarium in Boston for more than 50 years.

Veterinarians performed Myrtle's checkup after the 500-pound reptile was hoisted from the aquarium's Giant Ocean Tank in an enormous crate on a chain. Watching the humungous turtle elevated from the tank in a way that resembled the way a piano is lifted outside a building provided some of the aquarium patrons with an unexpected thrill.

Myrtle is thought to be up to 95 years old, which would place her just beyond the upper boundaries of the species' longevity. But the big turtle is “in robust condition” despite her advanced age, said Mike O'Neill, manager of the ocean tank.

There's every reason to believe Myrtle will stick around for years to come, O'Neill said.

“She is iconic,” O'Neill said. “One of the really special things we see is parents with their kids who say, ‘This is Myrtle, she has been here since when I was a kid.’ She has this multigenerational impact, which is really special.”

Giving the massive sea turtle a physical exam is no small feat, and it happens about twice per year. First, a team of divers shepherded Myrtle into the underwater crate, which was lifted from the water by a winch. The process took place during open hours at the aquarium, and dozens of onlookers watched as Myrtle was brought to a deck for the exam.

Next, a team of veterinarians, vet techs and aquarists worked together to draw blood from Myrtle, check her flippers for range of motion and make sure her eyes, mouth and nose were in working order. Aquarium staff assured curious children that the turtle was in no danger — and that the veterinarians were trained professionals safe from her powerful jaws.

Myrtle then received an ultrasound, her weight was taken, and she returned to the ocean tank, O'Neill said. The turtle was back in the ocean tank munching on lettuce and cabbage by late morning on Tuesday.

Myrtle has been visited by about 50 million people over the decades and has gotten used to humans in that time. The aquarium's website boasts that Myrtle, who arrived from another aquarium in 1970, “loves having her shell scratched.”

Green sea turtles are the second-largest species of sea turtle, and they live in tropical and subtropical oceans around the world. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists them as endangered and decreasing in population.

Myrtle shares space with a pair of loggerhead sea turtles named Carolina and Retread who are about half her age and size. The aquatic roommates also received physicals on Tuesday and are “also both doing great,” O'Neill said.

Myrtle, a green sea turtle, swims past New England Aquarium divers preparing to get into and extract the creature from the Giant Ocean Tank exhibit for a medical examination in Boston, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. Myrtle, who's around 90 years old and weighs almost a quarter of a ton, underwent a medical examination that included blood draws as well as eye, mouth and a physical examination to ensure the creature remains in good health. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

New England Aquarium staff hold to restrain Myrtle to prevent the massive sea turtle from injuring a veterinarian performing a medical examination in Boston, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. Myrtle, who's around 90 years old and weighs almost a quarter of a ton, underwent a medical examination that included blood draws as well as eye, mouth and a physical examination to ensure the creature remains in good health. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

Myrtle, a green sea turtle, swims past New England Aquarium divers preparing to get into and extract the creature from the Giant Ocean Tank exhibit for a medical examination in Boston, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. Myrtle, who's around 90 years old and weighs almost a quarter of a ton, underwent a medical examination that included blood draws as well as eye, mouth and a physical examination to ensure the creature remains in good health. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

New England Aquarium staff and visitors looking at Myrtle as the massive sea turtle rests in a crate after being hoisted out of a giant ocean tank before a performed a medical examination in Boston, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. Myrtle, who's around 90 years old and weighs almost a quarter of a ton, underwent a medical examination that included blood draws as well as eye, mouth and a physical examination to ensure the creature remains in good health. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi) (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

FILE - Myrtle, a green sea turtle estimated to be almost 90 years old, swims in the main tank at the New England Aquarium, April 22, 2016, in Boston. Veterinarians performed Myrtle’s check up Tuesday, April 9, 2024, after the 500-pound reptile was hoisted from the aquarium’s Giant Ocean Tank in an enormous crate on a chain. Myrtle is thought to be as many as 95 years old, which would place her just beyond the upper boundaries of the species' longevity, but aquarium staff said the big turtle is in robust condition despite her advance age. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes, File)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A survivor of the worst gang attack on Haitian journalists in recent memory described Wednesday seeing colleagues cut down by bullets and reporters with head and chest wounds going an hour or more without help.

Two reporters and one police officer died in Tuesday's attack at the reopening of Port-au-Prince's biggest public hospital. Seven journalists covering the event were wounded.

“Some were hit in the chest,” photographer Jean Fregens Regala recalled. “Some of the journalists had part of their face destroyed, some were shot in the mouth, or the head.”

Members of the Viv Ansanm coalition of street gangs, which has taken control of much of Port-au-Prince, had surrounded the hospital and opened fire through a metal gate. The gangs later said they were angry the government had announced the re-opening of the hospital without their permission.

Video from inside at the time of the attack shows a metal gate outside the hospital buckling under a hail of gunfire, as reporters scrambled to try to get inside the building.

“All the journalists started moving to go inside the hospital because we heard that the gunfire was getting close to us,” recalled Regala. “I was hiding behind by the gate to put myself somewhere safe but other journalists were rushing to go inside the hospital and there was non-stop shooting."

Regala survived only because he remained sheltered behind a concrete guardhouse next to the gate. “If I had rushed and ran, or ran inside the hospital to hide, I am sure I would among the victims.”

“We began calling for help, for just aid, for the victims that were bleeding heavily,” he said. “There was no doctor or nurse around.”

“While the hospital was about to reopen, it had no medical supplies available for giving first aid to the journalist victims and the other victims,” Regala said, adding that since they couldn't find any gloves they used plastic bags on their hands as substitutes.

Nor did the health minister show up. The area is so dangerous that when police finally responded to the journalists' calls for help after about two hours, they had to come in with a ladder over a wall from the nearby National Police because the gangs controlled most of the streets.

“These people spent more than an hour losing blood,” Regala said.

The Haitian Association of Journalists issued a statement Tuesday calling on the country's barely functioning government not to put the lives of reporters — or the public — at risk with such events.

The association called for “authorities to act prudently in their rush to make decisions, to avoid exposing to danger the journalists and others who accompany them at their events.”

Regala said it was clear as soon as they arrived that the area around the hospital was unsafe.

“The fact that the minister of health invited us, you feel that preparations have been made already,” he said. “When we made contact with a police unit, the police told us, they were not aware of the event, of the reopening of the hospital.”

The government had no immediate response to the complaints. Meanwhile, the seven wounded journalists were taken to another hospital.

“I send my sympathies to the people who were victims, the national police and the journalists," Haiti’s interim president, Leslie Voltaire, said in an address to the nation Tuesday.

Street gangs have taken over an estimated 85% of Port-au-Prince and have also targeted the main international airport and Haiti’s two largest prisons.

Johnson “Izo” André, considered Haiti’s most powerful gang leader and part of the Viv Ansanm group of gangs, posted a video on social media Tuesday claiming responsibility for the attack.

The video said the gang coalition had not authorized the hospital’s reopening.

Haiti has seen journalists targeted before. In 2023, two local journalists were killed in the space of a couple of weeks — radio reporter Dumesky Kersaint was fatally shot in mid-April that year, while journalist Ricot Jean was found dead later that month.

In July, former Prime Minister Garry Conille visited the Hospital of the State University of Haiti, more widely known as the General Hospital, after authorities regained control of it from gangs.

The hospital had been left ravaged and strewn with debris. Walls and nearby buildings were riddled with bullet holes, signaling fights between police and gangs. On Tuesday, Regala said workers were only just painting and cleaning the hospital.

Gang attacks have pushed Haiti’s health system to the brink of collapse, looting, setting fires and destroying medical institutions and pharmacies in the capital. The violence has created a surge in patients and a shortage of resources to treat them.

Regala said he will ignore his family's pleas to get out of journalism.

“The work needs to continue, to make sure the population is kept informed,” he said.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

People help a wounded journalist who was shot by armed gangs at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jean Feguens Regala)

Journalists sit wounded after being shot by armed gangs at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jean Feguens Regala)

A wounded journalist talks on the phone after being shot by armed gangs at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jean Feguens Regala)

Journalists climb up a wall to take cover from gunfire, after being shot at by armed gangs at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jean Feguens Regala)

The wife of a journalist, who was shot during an armed gang attack on the General Hospital, cries as an ambulance arrives with his body, at a different hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Medics inspect an ambulance of wounded people, shot by armed gangs at the General Hospital, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

A wounded security officer looks on after being shot by armed gangs at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jean Feguens Regala)

A journalist helps wounded journalists who were shot by armed gangs at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jean Feguens Regala)

The wife of a journalist, who was shot during an armed gang attack on the General Hospital, cries as an ambulance arrives with his body, at a different hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Journalists lie wounded after being shot by armed gangs at the general hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Dieugo Andre)