Former Patients

In early December 2016, a mass cold stun event occurred off the coast of Massachusetts, and many loggerhead and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles were rescued by the New England Aquarium. Clearwater Marine Aquarium offered to help New England Aquarium care for the turtles if they ran out of space. So, 3 loggerhead turtles were flown down to Florida via private jet. Alvin was one of the 3 loggerheads.

Gran Torino is a juvenile green sea turtle that was found on February 17th, 2016 right off the Dunedin Causeway in Florida. Multiple small fibropapilloma tumors were found on his eyes, plastron, neck and base of flippers. Additionally, Gran Torino’s left eye was missing.

Gryffindor is a juvenile green sea turtle that was accidentally hooked by a fisherman at John’s Pass, FL on March 16th, 2016. Gryffindor was found to have numerous small to medium external fibropapilloma tumors.

Vanilla Wafer is a juvenile green sea turtle that was found on January 24th, 2016 in Clearwater Beach, FL with three severe boat strike wounds on its carapace. These wounds left internal tissue, including the spinal cord, exposed.

(In a galaxy far, far away…) Han Solo is a juvenile green sea turtle that was found on February 17, 2016 in St. Petersburg, FL. Han Solo was found with a portion of its back carapace along with his tail and cloaca missing.

BB is a juvenile hawksbill sea turtle that was found on February 12th, 2016 in Treasure Island, FL. BB was found in a lethargic, slightly emaciated state with a lot of epibiota on top of her carapace, with many barnacles lodged in between her scutes. After removing all barnacles from BB’s carapace, it was then discovered that both of her humeri in her front flippers were broken, too.

A local fisherman found Iris, a juvenile Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, on September 25th, 2016 entangled in a crab trap in Chassahowitzka River, Citrus County, FL. The crab trap had entangled Iris’s left front flipper creating a deep laceration, and causing the flipper to swell as well as causing a laceration on the dorsal side of her neck.