Volunteers lining up to nurse Queensland's sick and injured sea turtles

Once anaemic and malnourished, Spike the green sea turtle now looks comfortably chubby and wiggles his tail as he swims to freedom.He has spent 135 days at the Quoin Island Turtle Rehabilitation Centre, 5 kilometres off the coast of Gladstone in central Queensland.Spike is the first turtle Meredith Fraker, who travelled thousands of kilometres from her home in the United States to volunteer at the centre, has helped release back into the ocean."He's so curious, you can see it in his face when he comes up to you, he's just got these big eyes," she says.The facility houses green sea turtles needing treatment for injuries such as boat strikes, fishing-line ingestions and illnesses."All of them kind of have their own little personalities and their own little quirks," Ms Fraker says."Then when you get to see them strong enough and healthy enough that they can be released, it's so rewarding."The 22-year-old is among a small group of volunteers caring for turtles at the centre."Where I come f...