Wednesday, 2/27/2013.
Today we visited the Sea Turtle
Hospital (where they rehabilitate injured and rescues sea turtles). It is quite
an interesting place. The turtles in
will eat anything that resembles food, and wind up ingesting all kinds of
material (mostly plastic), which can cause “turtle gas” that they cannot pass
because of the plastic, which makes them buoyant, so they get hit by
boats. They also get infections, and
other injuries, as well as tumors caused by insecticide (and other chemical) run-off. The hospital treats all of these and then
releases the turtles back into the wild.
Those that cannot be released are kept at the facility, or other
aquarium facilities or zoos.
These folks do a great job and the facility is first
rate. If you are in the Marathon area,
it is definitely worth the visit. It is
right on Route 1 almost across the street from West Marine. www.turtlehospital.org
One picture shows a Loggerhead who had been hit by a boat. Her shell has been repaired, and you can see
the deep scars on her shell and head, as well as the metal straps used to put
her shell back together. Another
picture shows a Loggerhead with a floatation belt to keep it level. This one has a collapsed lung and can’t
maintain a “even keel”, Both of these
animals are expected to recover and be released back into the sea. Another
picture shows one of the staff cleaning the shell on a small Loggerhead. Enjoy the pictures! Click here to see all the latest pictures! http://imgur.com/a/S4tc1
Stay tuned for more! We hope to head north toward Miami on Monday then over to the Abacos (Northern Bahamas).
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