- 100-lb Loggerhead Sea Turtle rescued by Texas State Aquarium near Cole Park Pier
- Broken humerus bones in front left flipper, and fractures to the shell
- Will be a few months of recovery at Texas State Aquarium Wildlife Rescue Center
The Texas State Aquarium rescue team pulled a 100-lb Loggerhead Sea Turtle out of Corpus Christi Bay, near Cole Park Pier on Tuesday evening.
After Texas State Aquarium veterinarians did multiple X-rays and tests on this turtle, they concluded that she has a fracture to her left humerus, the bone in her L front flipper, as well as several fractures in the carapace, or shell, over her left shoulder, with some lacerations to her left flipper, as well.
“What we know is that there’s an injury to one of the front flippers. We were able to see that on X-ray. Also that the animal is floating, gives us some concern that there might be something internally happening as well. So there will be further diagnostics, but the prognosis is good. It’s going to take a while for her to recover, but we think it’ll be back out in the Gulf of Mexico probably later this year,” Texas State Aquarium President and CEO Jesse Gilbert said.
Veterinarians expect her recovery to take at least three months.
"What we typically see is these larger turtles come in and depending on what their injuries are, you know, turtles just by nature are slower, and so is the healing process. So, we’ll see loggerheads this size stay for you know, certainly 3 to 4 months, maybe even into early fall," Gilbert said.
It is not extremely unusual to see Loggerheads wash up ashore in the Coastal Bend. It is not extremely common either.
“So hopefully this is just a one-off, and you know, just an animal that just got into trouble and found its way into Corpus Christi Bay and is now here," Gilbert said.
However, another injured Loggerhead Sea Turtle was rescued in the Coastal Bend this week. The Amos Rehabilitation Keep (ARK) in Port Aransas rescued one on Wednesday.
Gilbert does not believe that these two sightings are related to another large Loggerhead turtle event, like when many of them washed up in 2021.
The Texas State Aquarium is going to be on the lookout for any more Loggerhead Sea Turtles washing ashore.
“It's getting state of the art medical care. And again, our prognosis is good. We think this animal will recover, slowly, but will recover, and that's why the Wildlife Rescue Center is such an asset for the Coastal Bend,” Gilbert said. "We're turtle enthusiasts too and our job is to make sure that we make that population resilient."
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