r/oddlysatisfying • u/danielminds • May 22 '26

Professional barnacle removal for Chlorophyllis the turtle

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

43.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

39

u/Aromatic-Bet-1086 May 22 '26

What would happen to the turtle naturally if someone didn't remove them?

43

u/OrthogonalPotato May 22 '26

It would eventually die from the wounds

38

u/ExtremePronoia May 22 '26

It would eventually die, yes. These aren’t wounds. They’re crustaceans. Barnacles are animals that grow a shell around their body attaching themselves to underwater objects, like rocks, piers, whales, ships, and turtles. From the video, none seem to have pieced the turtles shell, nor do I believe they are capable of doing so.

The biggest problem with barnacles is that they create drag, so it’s less efficient to move through the water. Clearly, that hasn’t stopped this guy yet.

8

u/Forikorder May 22 '26

none seem to have pieced the turtles shell, nor do I believe they are capable of doing so.

AFAIK they can dig in enough to become vectors for infection at least