The Lake Erie watersnake population had declined to about 1,500 adults by the mid-1990s because of human persecution and habitat loss from shoreline development. Federal and state agencies designated 300 acres of inland habitat and 11 miles of shoreline as breeding and hibernation grounds, while scientists led a public relations blitz to convince people the snake was nothing to fear.

The effort quickly paid off. By 2002, the snake had reached the government's minimum goal of 5,555 snakes. A census in 2009 estimated the population at nearly 12,000.

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Exotic species generally are regarded as harmful to ecosystems they invade. The round goby has caused a number of native Great Lakes fish to decline. But it arrived just in time for the watersnake.

"This is an ironic example of where an invasive species actually helps fuel the recovery of an endangered native species," said Kristin Stanford, a Northern Illinois University researcher who also works for Ohio State University's Stone Laboratory on Lake Erie's Gibraltar Island. "Within the past decade, watersnakes are now growing faster, bigger, with more offspring and a higher survival rate."

"The whole community is so up in arms about it," said Richie Moretti, who founded the Turtle Hospital in Marathon in 1986.

The victim is a sub adult, 15 to 18 years old. Although the turtle is too young for its gender to be determined, its rescuers named it Sara, after a family member who was celebrating her 18th birthday.

Doug Mader, an expert reptile veterinarian who removed the four-foot, steel-shafted spear, said Sara is one lucky turtle.

The story began on Aug. 3, when father and son Charlie and Nicholas Borg, vacationing from Michigan, were returning to Big Pine Key from a fishing trip in the Atlantic. They spotted something floating, with flippers in the air, near Little Palm Island.

As they got closer, they discovered it was a sea turtle with a long spear protruding from its face. "I've seen turtles before that were hit by boats, but that was not anything I expected to see," said Nicholas Borg, 22.

"At first we thought it was dead, but it pulled its head up, took a breath and dove back down," he added. "We both looked at each other and knew we needed to do something."

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He expects that Sara will be well enough to be released back into the wild within a month or so.

"I don't think it will have any permanent injuries, just a great story to tell its kids," Mader said.