Sea turtle with 'bubble butt syndrome' gets 3D-printed harness to help with swimming

Charlotte, a green sea turtle at Connecticut's Mystic Aquarium, wears a custom 3D-printed prosthetic harness on his backside.

Charlotte, who was named before they realized he was a boy, was hit by a boat out in the wild years ago, Dr. Molly Martony, senior veterinarian at Mystic Aquarium, told New Haven ABC affiliate WTNH.

The accident damaged his shell and spinal cord, which led to a condition called positive buoyancy syndrome, also known as "bubble butt syndrome," according to the aquarium.

This can cause pressure on the organs and possible damage to the GI tract, and the "air in the tract doesn't allow them to function as a normal sea turtle anymore," Claire Bolster, Charlotte's handler, said.

"When he's vertical like that, it can compress some of his upper organs," Bolster told WTNH.

Enter the 3D-printing solutions company Adia, which measured and scanned Charlotte for the harness, and New Balance Athletics, which helped with the design, WTNH reported.

The aquarium said weights can now be added to adjust Charlotte's harness as needed, so the turtle can "level out" and swim more smoothly.

"The animal has had such a long time swimming in an abnormal way that we don’t want to just correct everything necessarily all at once," Martony told WTNH.