The Turtle Hospital

Today I visited the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Florida. The hospital opened in 1986 in an abandoned motel. They use the rooms for offices and surgery and care spaces. The motel had a saltwater pool that is still being used today. There are also many individual tanks used when turtles need to be isolated. This place is one of a few state or federal agencies that rehabilitate injured sea turtles. The hospital has up to date medical equipment and can perform surgery on different species and sizes of turtles. On average the hospital receives about 70 injured sea turtles a year. To date they have released more than 1200 sea turtles. They have their own ambulance for transporting sea turtles.

These are their four main goals outlined in their brochure.
1. Rehabilitate sick or injured sea turtles and return them to the wild.
2. Educate the public through outreach programs.
3. Conduct and assist with sea turtle research in conjunction with state universities.
4. Work with environmental legislation to make the beaches and water safe and clean for sea turtles.

There are seven species of sea turtles but only five are found in the Keys.

Loggerhead- eats shrimp, lobster, conch and can weigh more than 300 pounds; is the most common sea turtle found in Florida waters; are a threatened species

Green-eats sea grasses and can weigh up to 500 pounds; an endangered species

Hawksbill-eats sponges and can weigh up to 150 pounds, hawk like beak; an endangered species

Leatherback-eats mainly jellyfish and can weigh up to 2000 pounds; an endangered species

Kemps Ridley-eats crabs and shrimp and can weigh up to 100 pounds; named after a Key West fisherman; an endangered species

The hospital works to treat a variety of issues such as flipper amputations caused by entanglement in trap lines or fishing lines; shell damage caused by boat collisions; intestinal issues caused by ingestion of materials such as balloons or plastic bags. They also help with disoriented hatchlings. The most common surgery is to remove viral tumors called Fibropapilloma. These tumors affect over half of all juvenile green sea turtles in the Florida Keys and most green sea turtles around the world.  We saw some turtles with these tumors at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium as well.

 The turtle on top left was hit by boat and has air in his shell causing bubble butt syndrome and that causes trouble with buoyancy.That is a hatchling on top right. The flipper in the bottom picture was tangled in fishing line and will be amputated later today.

The Turtle on the right has weights attached to help with buoyancy.

The hospital staff works with schools and classes to educate kids about sea turtles and what the hospital does.  If you are a teacher, you can go to their website: www.theturtlehospital.org
You can contact the staff about doing a free skype session with your class. You can also adopt one of their permanent residents for $35 a year.

This kind of place is so interesting and I love that they are rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing sea turtles when possible.