The Turtle Hospital

(Hidden Harbor Marine Environmental Project, Inc.)
Marathon, Florida

We have a total of 13 permanent residents at the turtle hospital. This are all turtles in which their injuries are too severe to place them back in the wild. Each of these sea turtles are ambassadors for their species, allowing us at the turtle hospital to educate the public and local school children about the dangers that sea turtles are exposed to in the wild.

Bubbles

Bubbles was rescued on July 7, 2002 in Tavernier creek, Florida. Bubbles is missing her left front flipper and sustained a boat hit to her shell. Most sea turtles can do just fine with only three flippers unfortunately the boat hit caused paralysis in Bubbles rear flippers. With only one flipper Bubbles is non-releasable. She has gotten a nick name at the hospital of "Pigpen" as she is always covered in mud and sediment. Bubbles spends most of her day sleeping in the large pool lodged underneath a rock.

Bubble-Butt

Bubble-Butt has been a resident at the Hospital longer than any other turtle! She arrived in March of 1989 with a deformed shell caused by a propeller injury. The injury left her unable to dive to search for food, and caused her posterior to bob at the surface. She became affectionately known as a "bubble-butt." When rehabilitation measures failed to correct her flotation problem, she became a permanent resident. In an effort to give her a more comfortable life here at the rehab facility, a 2 1/2 pound dive weight has been fiberglassed to her shell. This counteracts her flotation problem and enables her to maintain a normal swimming posture. Repeat visitors to the Hidden Harbor Motel remember her name and are always happy to see her.

Bubble-butt must remain at the Hospital because the fiberglass holding her dive weight on is not permanent enough. From time to time she loses the weight and must have it re-attached. If we released her back into the ocean and she lost this weight, she would not be able to obtain enough food and would eventually starve.

April

April arrived at the Turtle Hospital in April of 1990. April had fibropapilloma tumors and they were covering both of her eyes. Because she could not see, she had not been able to eat and was very skinny. The veterinarians were able to remove the tumors and save April's life, but one tumor was so large that it had completely destroyed one eye. The cornea in her other eye had been damaged by the tumor and she is blind in that eye. April would not be able to fend for herself in the ocean and so she remains here at the hospital. She is hand-fed every day. Recently, Dr. Carmen Colitz made a house call to exam April left eye. Dr. Carmen Colitz determined that April's left eye had been to severely damaged and was beyond repair.

Rebel

Rebel came to the Hospital in August of 1991. He had previously been hit by a boat propeller which damaged his shell and caused him to float at the surface. His wound was nearly healed, but he had become very skinny and weak because he could not dive to the bottom to feed. He quickly regained his weight and strength at the Hospital, but still could not dive to the bottom. He has also been fitted with a dive weight to overcome his flotation problem. Like Bubble-butt, he will have to remain here at the Hospital for the rest of his life. Some Hospital volunteers affectionately call him "Fatso" because of his enthusiasm at dinner time!

Montel

A Green Sea Turtle who has the shown of the most courage any animal could have. Montel has been at the hospital since April 07, 2001. This turtle had numerous problems on arrival including damage to one eye by a boat hit, was missing half of one flipper due to shark attack, the other flipper was missing and was already healed. And if that was not enough Montel also had fibropapilloma. Montel now makes his way around our main pool well enough to show off that he is alive but is still to slow to release.

Some of our current residents

Turtles we've release back to the oceans