Florida Aquarium’s staff veterinarian Dr. Lindsey Waxman took it as an encouraging sign when one of her sea turtle patients grew feisty with her.
“If you're working with wildlife and the animal is trying to kill you, you've done a good job because now it has the energy to fight and to survive in the wild, and that's what we want to see,” Waxman told Florida news outlet WFLA.
The wriggling patient in question was Dark-Blue Yellow, a green sea turtle that came under the Florida Aquarium’s care in late March.
As soon as he arrived at the rescue center, it was clear that he had extensive injuries, chief among them being a cut on his underbelly that was deep enough to go through his plastron — the flat, bottom portion of a sea turtle’s shell that protects its belly and internal organs.
Although they couldn’t be fully certain, the staff believed that his wound was likely from a boat strike.
“It very well still could be associated with a boat strike because there’s really not that many things outside of human interaction that could cause wounds through the bone of a sea turtle,” Waxman explained.
Dark-Blue Yellow is among 21 other rescues picked up along the East Coast this season, but the severity of his injuries required around-the-clock care.
“It was unique and the most severe case that we’ve ever seen at the Florida Aquarium,” said Waxman.
Marine life boat strikes are far too common, especially in the summertime.
In early June, four friends were boating near Jupiter, Florida, when they spotted a large sea turtle struggling to keep her head above water.
The turtle, which they later named Zoey, weighed more than 300 pounds and required all four of the men to work together to guide her to the marina’s pier with a rope-pulley system.
Once out of the water, they noticed deep wounds on her shell consistent with a boat strike, which experts from the Loggerhead Marinelife Center later confirmed.
Despite their determination and the rapid response from wildlife specialists, Zoey died a few hours later from her injuries.
However, the four Florida locals said they would help again in a heartbeat.
“I think [sea turtles] are a staple of our waters,” one of the rescuers, Will Savery, told West Palm Beach news outlet WPTV. “When there’s an accident that happens with one, we’ve got to do what we can to save them.”
Fortunately, Dark-Blue Yellow has a different ending to his story. The Florida Aquarium staff said that he has made a promising recovery and is on track to return to the ocean in less than two months.
Still, Waxman stressed that sea turtles like Dark-Blue Yellow need all the help they can get.
“Sea turtles are just coming off of their endangered levels, but they still need help out there,” Waxman said. “These turtles would not be able to recover without human intervention.”
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Header image via The Florida Aquarium Turtle Rehabilitation Center
