As water rescues go, this one was as dramatic as they come.
A boater jumped in to save her. Her wounds were given first aid and a breathing mask was clamped over her mouth and nose. She was loaded onto a lifeguard backboard to be taken to the nearest facility where she could get the best care quickly.
But, in the end, the boat propeller strike that Maxine, a 200-pound loggerhead, suffered in the Intracoastal Waters around Pompano Beach proved too grave.
The staff at the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex decided to euthanize the turtle, estimated to be about 15 years old, soon after she arrived at the Boca Raton facility Tuesday afternoon.