The warm waters off the Florida Keys provided the perfect welcome home for a rehabilitated sea turtle this Earth Day. Hundreds of spectators erupted in cheers on April 22 as “Addie” made her way into the Atlantic Ocean for a fresh start after an improbable recovery.
“Addie is a juvenile green sea turtle who has been rehabilitating at the Turtle Hospital since August of last year,” said Bette Zirkelbach, the hospital’s manager. “She had a fishing hook deeply embedded in her esophagus. She was covered in fibropapilloma tumors.”
At first glance, Addie didn’t have a bright prognosis and wasn’t expected to survive. Following her surgery, she couldn’t lift her head. So instead of returning to water, she had to be placed on a shower bed for a month, where she underwent physical therapy, then was fed by tube twice a day for two months.
When she was healthy again, Addie gave the medical team quite the scare. She was brought back to life three different times during her stay at the Turtle Hospital, which makes her strength and recovery even more praiseworthy, hospital staff said.
Zirkelbach was grateful the turtle release coincided with Earth Day to provide a platform to educate others. Before releasing Addie back into the ocean, kids had a chance to learn from Zirkelbach about the need to protect the earth and its ecosystems.
“People want to do good things. And caring for sea turtles gives them something to care about,” she said. The Turtle Hospital, based in Marathon, has been rescuing, rehabilitating and returning sea turtles to the wild for almost 40 years. More information is at www.turtlehospital.org.
