By Sam Farfan
Aquarium of the Pacific animal care specialists released an endangered loggerhead sea turtle off the Southern California coast on Oct. 16 after months of rehabilitation.
Aquarium officials later announced the construction of a new on-site sea turtle rescue enclosure opening next year.
Several aquarium staff members organized a release event for the loggerhead to celebrate the turtle’s full recovery. Volunteers and aquarium stakeholders watched the event from aboard a Harbor Breeze Cruises boat.
The last loggerhead sea turtle to be rehabilitated and released back into the wild by the aquarium was in November of 2015, almost a decade ago.
Known among the aquarium staff as “Lucy the loggerhead,” the turtle spent roughly three months in rehabilitation after being treated for dehydration, invasive barnacles on her shell and flippers, mild pneumonia and ulcers in her eyes. Lucy was found weak, thin and with cloudy eyes due to her emaciated and dehydrated condition.
Lucy the loggerhead turtle swam around as she tried to find the direction she wanted to go. Lucy was reported to gain 10 pounds after undergoing rehabilitation with the rescue team. Photo credit: Mark Siquig.
The turtle’s treatment included subcutaneous fluids in the eyes, quality seafood meals to help her gain weight and antibiotics to treat mild pneumonia as well as the ectoparasites on her flippers. Lucy was able to gain 10 pounds, which is about 20% of the turtle’s current body weight, during her recovery at the aquarium, helping the turtle get back into a healthy condition.
However, over the three months of rehabilitation, the process wasn’t always smooth sailing for the aquarium staff while Lucy was in their care, according to veterinarian Dr. Lance Adams.
“This animal took several weeks before she started eating any food, and in the meantime, we had to keep supplementing with fluid administration to keep the animal’s hydration back up,” Adams said. “She adjusted her comfortability with being around people and being in a managed care situation pretty well [after that].”
Although the ocean has an abundance of water, Adams compared the ocean to a desert as it doesn’t have much drinking water for turtles to hydrate themselves with, explaining that turtles get most of their hydration from the food they consume.
Many spectators and media were invited to see Lucy finally dive into the ocean. Staff that was involved in Lucy’s rehab were also on board as they announced a new project for the Aquarium of the Pacific. Photo credit: Mark Siquig
Shortly after Lucy’s release back into the wild, Aquarium of the Pacific’s Vice President of Development Ryan Ashton announced the construction of a 4,000-gallon enclosure to serve as an on-site sea turtle rehabilitation space at the aquarium.
“This is a huge part of the work that we do at the aquarium, is helping to protect species and reintroduce them to their natural environment,” Ashton said. “So with that said, we are looking to expand the work we are doing with sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation. We are going to be building out a new area outside over by the Molina Animal Care Center.”
The aquarium received a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation with support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, as well as matched funds from the KM Shimano Family Foundation to help build the enclosure, but the space will still require additional funds for specialty equipment and medical supplies. According to Ashton, more details regarding the enclosure’s fundraising campaign will come in the following weeks.
The loggerhead turtle was rescued near Avila Beach, located on the central California coast, on June 17. Shortly after, NOAA authorized Lucy’s transfer to the Aquarium of the Pacific from The Marine Mammal Center’s field office in Morro Bay.
Loggerhead sea turtles cannot regulate their internal body temperature. Aquarium of the Pacific veterinarian Dr. Brittany Stevens said the water temperature where the turtle was found was too cold for a turtle of that species.
“Loggerhead sea turtles are found in more tropical waters. Usually, they are not found quite up far this north. They do nest down in Baja California,” Stevens said.
Lucy is estimated to be between ten and fifteen years old. However, aquarium officials could not definitively determine the turtle’s sex because loggerhead sea turtles don’t reach sexual maturity until they’re much older and physically longer.
“This is a subadult, meaning it’s not sexually mature. But our staff decided that it was going to be ‘Lucy the loggerhead,’ so we’ve just been referring to her as a her,” Stevens said.
In the northern Pacific Ocean, all loggerhead sea turtles are endangered and are protected under the Endangered Species Act. The construction of the new sea turtle rescue enclosure will ensure the facility’s capacity and resource expansion to provide better care for injured wildlife as soon as next year.
