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| Turtle medical technicians helping a sick turtle |
If you were to find a sick or injured turtle on the beach in
the Florida Keys, you would likely call the Turtle Hospital in Marathon. They would dispatch an ambulance and
professional turtle medical staff would rescue the turtle and bring it to the
hospital where it might undergo medication, surgery and/or rehabilitation. Some sick turtles might stay more than a year.
The healthy turtles are then released
back into the ocean. The few that can
not survive in the wild either stay the hospital as permanent residents (there
are 5), or are sent to live out their lives in zoos or aquaria.
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| The five sea turtles found in Florida |
There are 7 species of sea turtles world-wide, five of which
can be found in the waters off the coast of Florida. Every one of these five species are considered
either Threatened or Endangered. The
turtle population has dwindled in large part due to effects of man. They have been over-hunted, hit by boat
propellers, gotten caught in fishing line, drowned in fishing nets, had their nesting grounds taken away (they always return to the
beach where they were hatched to lay their eggs), eat plastic debris found in
the water which makes them sick, and they have tumors thought to be caused by
pollutants absorbed by the grasses they eat.
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| This turtle has "bubble butt" |
Many efforts have been made to save these majestic creatures. One such is the Turtle Hospital in Marathon,
the largest turtle hospital in the Keys.
You can take a 90-minute educational tour of the hospital. A new one starts every hour, starting at 9
and ending at 6. They encourage that you
make a reservation, and we saw drop-ins turned away because the tour group was
already full.
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| The former motel, now staff residence |
The Turtle Hospital started as the Hidden
Harbor Motel. When Richie Moretti purchased
it in 1980s it had a large salt water pool.
He built a fresh water pool for his guests and stocked the salt pool
with fish so that his guests could learn about life in the ocean.
Eventually, he considered adding a sea turtle
to his pool but found that they are protected, and were only held in captivity if you were rehabilitating sick or injured turtles. Once he started taking care of injured
turtles, the effort took on momentum.
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| One of the tank enclosures |
After sustaining damage in a hurricane, Richie decided to
invest his insurance money in rebuilding the turtle hospital instead of the
motel. So now, the motel rooms are used
to house hospital staff.
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| A recuperating turtle |
The tour starts with an introductory presentation about Leatherback,
Kemp’s Ridley, Hawksbill, Green and Loggerhead turtles. From there you walk past the operating room
and the place where they take x-rays. Outside
there are covered pavilions with tanks of different sizes. One large tank has three recuperating Green
turtles and the one Kemp’s Ridley that is a permanent resident. Further on, smaller tanks have individual or
a few smaller/younger turtles. One tank was
filled with just a few inches of water so that the sick turtle only needed to
raise its head to breathe, it was too sick to swim. Finally, you get to the original saltwater
pool where you can feed turtle food to the four other permanent residents and some other turtles who are finishing their convalescence. Along the way, you see turtle rehab
technicians caring for their patients.
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| This turtle is named Pink during its stay at the hospital. |
If you identify a turtle that needs rescuing, you get to give
the turtle a name. The name is painted
on the shell so that the techs can tell the turtles apart. At some point, a bunch of turtles came in unnamed,
so the staff were able to name them.
They chose the names of Disney characters.
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| The whitish disks you see are the weights glued to this turtle's back to help it sink |
It was sad to see the turtles with flippers amputated
because they had been caught in fishing line.
Several have a condition called “bubble butt” where gases released from
internal organs when their shells were damaged by boat propellers, have created
permanent pockets of gas under their shells, preventing them from diving below
the surface of the water. Weights are
glued on to their shells to make them neutrally buoyant so that they can sink
under water.
The Turtle Hospital tour is very informative and thoughtfully
done, and the work they are doing with the turtles is amazing.
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| The surgery |
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| The ambulance |
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