A sea turtle plagued by 'bubble butt’ condition is helped by a 3D printer "Bubble butt" can leave turtles struggling to swim normally — or unable to submerge at all. A 3D-printed harness can help.

Charlotte, the 138-pound green sea turtle, was struck by a boat about 18 years ago. Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday.

Green sea turtle gets relief from “bubble butt” syndrome thanks to 3D printing Boat collision left Charlotte stranded at the surface and in danger of predation.

Charlotte, a male green sea turtle, wears a 3D-printed harness to help him overcome "bubble butt syndrome" — a condition caused by a boat strike. Charlotte lives at the Mystic Aquarium in ...

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 ...

But gluing weights onto the shell isn't a permanent solution — they move as the animals grow and will come off as a sea turtle sheds scutes — the thick plates on its keratin shell, the University of ...

A 3D scan of Charlotte's shell gave engineers an early sense of the shape they would need to create. But it was harder to land on a design and material that would help the sea turtle.