Prying off barnacles is quite a stress-relieving activity when there are no other issues around.
Chen Ying sat on the reef and cleaned the back shell of the large sea turtle that had carried him over.
There were also a few on the chest shell. It's said that some clever sea turtles deliberately rub their chest shell against the reef to scrape off the barnacle larvae, but it's not so easy for the turtle's back, especially the edge of the shell—where would they find a suitable reef to rub against?
In fact, strictly speaking, even if a healthy sea turtle has barnacles on it, it's not a big problem. They find ways to rub against rocks or suitable sandy beaches, causing the barnacle shells to crack and fall off naturally.
An abundance of barnacles and algae on a turtle signifies that it's ill, providing opportunistic barnacles the chance to proliferate.
