Hofesh the Injured sea turtle swims again with artificial fins

Meet Hofesh, the sea turtle.

Hofesh was accidentally caught in a fishing net in 2009. Unfortunately, he was badly wounded - meaning veterinarians had to amputate the flippers on his left-hand side.

Much like the title character in Pixar's Finding Nemo, this left Hofesh with difficulty swimming, unable to balance his momentum from each side.

But a team of designers have solved that problem, with a little help from modern technology.

An industrial design student names Shlomi Gez heard about Hofesh - whose name means freedom in Hebrew - and thought he could use his designer skills to help.

Hofesh's original rescuers had tried attaching a diver's fin to the turtle's shell, but it didn't do much good. Gez, using his design knowledge, made a new device based of the dorsal fins of fish - but that didn't work either. It was an improvement, but not enough - Hofesh still had difficulty breathing.

So, Gez turned to an unlikely source of fin-spiration: the aerodynamic design of a warplane.

The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. Pic: Rob Shenk / CC

Gez designed a new prosthetic fin using not one dorsal structure, but two, based on the design of the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter - a familiar shape to many from its appearance in popular films.

“I discovered it worked better than one fin on the back,” Mr Gez told the Press Association. “With two fins, he keeps relatively balanced, even above the water.”

Unfortunately, male sea turtles never return to the shore once they enter the ocean, and with Hofesh's injuries, he will never return to the wild.

But with his increased mobility, his keepers are hopeful he will start a family with another turtle he shares his tank with, a female names Tsurit.

And, if they do hatch plans for baby turtles, the little ones will be released into the wild immediately - and live life normally, under the sea.