PANACEA, Fla. (WTXL) — The Marine Gulf Specimen Lab is trying to raise $50k to build a new Sea Turtle Hospital to continue protecting North Florida's endangered sea turtles.
- The lab's current hospital is very small, which makes caring for Sea Turtles quite hard.
- This hospital will be the only one in North Florida that can treat Fibropapilloma.
- Watch the video below to learn more about this much-needed expansion.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The sea turtle hospital at the Marine Gulf Specimen Lab sits at only 12 by 15 ft, not including equipment. One of their largest sea turtles to be treated here took up most of the space at 200 pounds.
To help with this, the Marine Gulf Specimen Lab has officially begun fundraising to build a new hospital so they can care for more sea turtles.
The lab is trying to raise $50,000 for their emergency expansion for a Sea Turtle Hospital and FP Quarantine System. Their current hospital was formerly a kitchen for the aquarium.
Since the closure of the Gulf World Marine Institute in Panama City, it leaves the specimen lab as the only hospital in North Florida that can treat Fibropapilloma.
"Green sea turtles in particular suffer a lot from a disease called Fibropapillomatosis," explained Hunter Eichler, the Head Aquarist and Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Coordinator at the lab. "It's a herpes like virus that causes tumors all over their fins. They can get on their eyes. They can get not really on their shell, but on their back flippers."
So if turtles get this disease, they would have to travel four plus hours one way to central/southern Florida for treatment.
With their current hospital, it's hard to treat these turtles without the risk of infecting others.
This expansion will allow for better equipment, a surgical room, more space for larger patients, and a quarantine area for FP-positive turtles. This helps their work in protecting North Florida's endangered sea turtles, which in turn will help our local aquatic ecosystem.
"These guys help keep jellyfish populations in check. With rising sea temperatures, Jellyfish populations are getting a little bit out of hand, but the sea turtles' favorite food is the jellyfish," said Eichler. "So the more sea turtles we have, the better they are, keeping that population in check."
They also eat algae off of reefs, which helps control algal growth.
This expansion will be an extension of their marine science center across the street from the aquarium. Eichler says they hope to have this new facility built in about 6 months, as this care is needed.
If you wish to help them with these efforts, you can scan the QR code below.
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