Visiting the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Jupiter

Archelon Skeleton

My latest travel found me on the East Coast of Florida for a visit with friends in Jupiter. Pat and I stopped talking long enough to visit the Loggerhead Marinelife Center. These creatures are pretty amazing. 

When we walked in, we were greeted by this skeleton of an archelon, the largest type of turtle ever to have been documented. The biggest specimen measured 15' long and had a 13' flipper span. The skeleton on display rivals that size and weighed in at 5,000 pounds. Archelon fossils have been found in surprising places like Kansas and South Dakota. You might think that would explain why they became extinct, but turtles have been known to live in all type of environments, including the desert. Who knew? 

Pat v. Sea Turtles

I was so taken by the skeleton's size that I asked the woman at the front desk if it was real. "Have you ever heard of dinosaurs?" was her helpful response, with a tone to match. I did recently go to the Field Museum so, yes, I am familiar with dinosaurs. I hope she doesn't give tours. (Google informed me -- without the attitude -- that sea turtles are estimated to have been in existence for 110 million years.)

The primary mission of the Center is the treatment and rehabilitation of sick and injured sea turtles. But there's lot of information for visitors to take in before you get to the patients in their tanks. Read on for a few tidbits I learned along the way. 

--There are seven different species of sea turtles. Among them is the loggerhead, the most common species in Florida. A majority of loggerhead nesting occurs on the beaches of the southeastern coast of Florida. 

--Sea turtles lay between 80-120 eggs per nest and average two to six nests per season. Wow. This raised the natural question of where baby sea turtles come from. Mating must be pretty complicated with those shells. We went back to the front desk to ask. If you can believe it, they didn't know!  Thanks again to Google, I have a better understanding of the logistics. Suffice it to say that it's not easy on the female, who has to keep swimming for both of them while her partner for the moment holds on for dear life and other male turtles try and get in on the action. If you have any interest in checking out the mechanics, click here for a pretty crazy video. 

Avenue of Art Sea Turtle by Deb Lawless

--The temperature of the turtle's nest determines the sex of the baby, with warmer nests yielding females. Marine biologists are concerned that climate change could result in an imbalance in the gender of sea turtles.

--Sea turtles can't pull their flippers and heads into their shells and hide out. In general, this isn't a problem because their size and speed makes them invulnerable to many predators. (They can swim up to 20 mph!) But this trait does place baby sea turtles more at risk than a standard issue turtle.

--A young loggerhead might circle the entire Atlantic Ocean in the first ten years of its life. Maturity is determined by the length of its shell. Loggerheads don't reach maturity for approximately 30 years, so they are quite youthful at age 10. They can live as long as 100 years.  

After taking in all this information, we reached the sea turtle rehab facility, where six patients were undergoing care. Multiple volunteers were on hand to share their knowledge. Currently, the hospital can accommodate 18 patients. A substantial renovation is underway that will permit three times that number upon completion. 

Most of the sea turtles we saw had suffered injuries to their shells. Gabe, a green turtle, was sporting a bandage over his wound. (Each patient is named when it arrives for care.) The Center was contacted after he was found floating in Fort Pierce. While the cause of his injury was unknown, it was clearly life-threatening and needed to be treated. When air gets into a turtle's shell or body, it can have difficulty diving to get food. This is why boating injuries to sea turtles are usually fatal. 

In case you're wondering, the plastic contraption in the tank is a plaything for Gabe. (All turtles except loggerheads have them in their tanks. Loggerheads are left out because they gnaw at them until they break.)  One of the guides shared that another one of their patients is a bit antisocial and likes to "hide" under one of the plastic bars. If I can't see you...

When the Center is contacted about an injured sea turtle, an ambulance is dispatched with hospital personnel aboard to retrieve the patient. A complete exam is done upon arrival that includes blood tests to check organ function and x-rays to look for issues from fractures to pneumonia to the presence of foreign objects like fishing hooks. Once a diagnosis has been made, treatment begins. While it makes sense, I was surprised to hear the turtles often undergo physical therapy. When a patient is deemed fully recovered, a microchip is implanted so the Center will know if it is caught again. Sometimes patients get a satellite tag for the gathering of data following release. All in all, it's quite an elaborate operation. 

With that, another successful outing was in the books. If you're in the Jupiter area, a visit to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center is a great supplement to your other activities. Click here for further information. Thanks to Pat for planning our visit!