Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory and Aquarium needs more sea turtle rehab facilities

January 25, 2016 Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Panacea Florida is asking for the public’s help. We have had a 600% increase in the number of injured turtles we are caring for and we urgently need $30,000 to expand our sea turtle rehab area.

In early 2015 Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory and Aquarium joined the Responsible Pier Initiative. We put up signs informing local anglers to call us if they accidentally hooked a sea turtles.We can come and pick up the turtles, safely remove the hook and provide necessary medical care. The number of hooked sea turtles we treated went from our average of 3/year to 17 in 2015, a 600%! The success of the Responsible Pier Initiative has has made it clear that our current quarantine unit is unable to meet the demand and we are in desperate need of expansion. We have set up a Tilt social media website to help us meet our goal of $30,000. If we meet this goal we can double our capacity.

All of the turtles we have rescued because of the Responsible Pier Initiative were juvenile Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles, the most critical endangered of all sea turtles. In 2015 we rescued more Kemp’s Ridleys than any other centre in Florida. With over 1.4 million fishing licenses in Florida and increasing numbers of piers, the threat of sea turtles being hooked is greater than ever before. We need help to save as many more of these Kemp’s Ridleys as we can. In the past, in addition to injured sea turtles, we have rescued turtles who were sick with diseases, including the highly contagious virus caused fibropapillomatosis. Last year, we also had a very sick turtle arrive with pneumonia who required long term care. We cannot risk exposing injured sea turtles to sick sea turtles and so we need to expand our rehab area to include full quarantine and isolation tanks.

Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory and Aquarium is the third oldest and northernmost sea turtle rehabilitation centre in The Gulf of Mexico. We are a registered 501c3 Status non profit organization.

https://www.tilt.com/tilts/time-of-the-turtle



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