At Florida center, visitors can see turtles, and learn, too

By Tracey Teo

For the AJC

A father lifts his young son against the glass on Turtle Terrace so he can get a good look at Morgan, a recuperating, 150-pound loggerhead sea turtle. A turtle rehabilitation specialist approaches the shallow pool and takes a blood sample.

Enlarge photo

A sea turtle is shown being released after treatment at the Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet, Fla.

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The Marine Science Center, a turtle rehabilitation facility and bird sanctuary in Ponce Inlet, Fla., not only offers a chance to see amazing sea creatures, but it also educates visitors about coastal ecosystem preservation and helps them understand how their actions — like not properly disposing of litter — affect the environment.

Exhibits on Turtle Terrace display the stomach contents extracted from sick sea turtles: a candy bar wrapper, electrical tape and cigarette butts. Kids learn that releasing just one plastic bag into the ocean could harm a sea turtle. The clear bags resemble jellyfish, a sea turtle’s favorite meal, and when ingested, they can cause a slow, painful death. Every species of sea turtle is now endangered with the exception of loggerheads that are listed as “threatened.”

Morgan is just one of 53 sea turtles that arrived at this “turtle hospital” between Feb. 24 and April 1 with a mysterious illness. Comatose sea turtles in Volusia County were washing ashore at an alarming rate, and the Marine Science Center was scrambling to keep up with the ever-growing numbers being brought in by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

“There was a lot of concern about the cause, especially because it (the sickness) was found in both loggerhead turtles and green turtles,” Michael Brothers, chief of interpretation, says. “Usually we tend to have the problems appear in only one species at a time.”

Specimens were sent to a lab for analysis, but the results were inconclusive, so the center had to treat the turtles symptomatically instead of for a specific illness. Several turtles have completed their rehabilitation and been reintroduced to their natural habitat, while others continue their convalescence.

Like many of the turtles afflicted with the strange illness, Morgan had an upper respiratory infection, but she also had an all too common problem — she had eaten too much and was suffering from an intestinal blockage.

Sea turtles often follow in the wake of shrimping boats as they cull their catch, indulging in a tempting, all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. Crustaceans, like crabs, are normally easily digested, but the bycatch from a shrimping boat is a feast, far more food than the sea turtles could ever catch on their own, and they tend to overindulge. The irony is that their gluttony can lead to starvation.

“They get lethargic and bloat, which causes them to float,” Brothers explains. “Because they are bloated with gas, they can no longer go to the bottom for food. It’s like having a life preserver tied to them, and they eventually wash up onshore emaciated.”

It’s a problem the Marine Science Center has seen countless times and can usually cure. Sea turtles tend to be the star of the show at the Marine Science Center, but the Mary Keller Seabird Rehabilitation Sanctuary is equally fascinating. Area residents who find a sick or injured bird can place it in a drop-off box that is available 24 hours a day, with the reassurance it will be treated by a team of experts.

In the guest viewing area, red-tailed hawks, pelicans, egrets and owls watch visitors from their perch as visitors inspect them. The Bird Observation Tower affords a panoramic view of Ponce Inlet, and kids love scanning the skies for birds they just learned about.

“Through firsthand explorations, these young people begin to understand and appreciate the life around us. That understanding will help make them better stewards of our vast marine legacy,” Brothers says.