What can you do?
For a sick or injured huge, sea turtle?
Call the ambulance, of course.
The Turtle Hospital Ambulance, in Marathon Keys, Florida!
It all started with a small hotel an owner, and a little boy with a good idea.
Hidden Harbor Motel was a small, private hotel on the beach with a tidal swimming pool. That’s a pool open to the sea where the tides come in and out and fill it for swimming.
One day a school boy was taking a tour of the tide pool with its fish, along with his class, and told the owner, “You know what you need? You need some big ole sea turtles in here!”
That comment got the owner thinking!
Many sea turtles are injured by sharks, ships, or the propellers on boats. They also ingest small plastic pieces that cause impactions in their digestive system, leading to starvation. A virus is in the water near where people live that causes the turtles to grow tumors that require surgery.
Who can help these turtles who can live 60 years and weigh 2,000 pounds measuring up to six and a half feet?
The team of experts and a veterinarian at the Turtle Hospital can! People bring the turtles to the low lying, mint green cluster of buildings or call to get the ambulance to pick the injured turtles up. The hospital has a fully equipped emergency room and a surgery. They are successfully treating, rehabilitating, and releasing these turtles.
If a turtle has one eye and three flippers, it can be released and successfully dive for food and live in its natural habitat. What if it is blind, or has lost more flippers?
Those turtles can’t be released and have a home at the turtle hospital in large, safe tanks. Visitors to the hospital get to see up close tiny babies smaller than the palm of your hand and adults larger than life!
So, how does the hospital exist? The turtles don’t have insurance or credit cards!
The fee for visitors, the car tag percent, and donations keep it afloat. Look it up and see if you want to become a supporter.
Who cares about turtles?
God created all animals and sea life and gave them life. They belong to God. Matthew 10:29 explains how much God cares for humans by saying God knows and cares about even the death of a sparrow. The animals have value.
If you start feeling depressed—“no one cares! I am not important! I am not worth anything!”
Remember, God loves the sparrow (and the sea turtles) and He died so you could be saved and have an eternal relationship with Him!
