MARATHON, Fla. – The Turtle Hospital, which has been open for about four decades in Marathon, is suffering from budget cuts, but eco-tourism has been helping.
The hospital is home to a turtle that is blind in one eye and lost half of a flipper after surviving a predator’s attack, a hit by a boat, and an entanglement.
“We just help people to fall in love with sea turtles and what we do with the things that we love is we protect and care for them,” Bette Zirkelbach, the hospital’s manager, said.
Terry Norton, the hospital’s lead veterinarian, said that to keep the turtle alive after the recovery, they will not be releasing it from the hospital. The rehab has a 70% success rate.
“To release turtles here, we do require them to have at least three working flippers and one eye,” Norton said.
Zirkelbach said there are seven species of sea turtle in the world, five are found off the Florida Keys, and these are all on the federal endangered species list.
“We have returned over 3,000 sea turtles back to the wild, but the much bigger reach than that is people seeing us care for these animals,” Zirkelbach said.
The hospital educates tourists on the effects of plastic pollution such as discarded fishing nets and lines, and the impact of warming waters and climate changes.
“My wonderful wife was like, ‘Hey! We’re going down to the Keys, there’s this turtle hospital, you gotta see it!’ And, I said yes,” Peter Boyarski, a tourist from California, said.
Norton said his work at the hospital allows him to be innovative.
“Trying a lot of different things that you get faced with, things that you have never seen before,” Norton said.
General admission is $35.
Here is how to connect:
Main page: https://turtlehospital.org/
Facebook: The Turtle Hospital
TikTok: @turtlehospital
Youtube: @TheTurtleHospitalMarathon
