Animal Hospital Patients
If you find any sick or injured turtles, contact our 24-hr rescue hotline right away. 727-441-1790 Ext. 1.
Clearwater Marine Aquarium is a working animal hospital.
You’ll see a number of rescued animals currently undergoing rehabilitation in our marine animal hospital. A majority of these animals are sea turtles. They may be suffering from various issues, including buoyancy disorders, cold stun symptoms, fibropapilloma tumors and boat strike or entanglement injuries. Our permanent resident animals also routinely receive medical care and treatments from the animal hospital. We have a full-time Vet and Vet Tech to assist all of our animal care teams.
Our sea turtle rehab center is one of only five facilities that treat sea turtles with the fibropapilloma virus in our ICU. This virus causes the growth of tumors that can be removed surgically with variable success for regrowth.
Learn more about our current animal hospital patients below, and see them at our surgical suite or ICU hallway on your next visit.
2018 Live Sea Turtle Intakes at Clearwater Marine Aquarium: 116
(Aug. 3, 2018)
Sea Turtle Hospital Patient – Miss Pam
Miss Pam Juvenile, Green (Chelonia mydas) Patient Status: Current. Date Found: August 17, 2018. Location: Near Seafood Shack Marine; Manatee County. Reason for Rescue: Found floating. Triage WEIGHT: 10.6 kg. SCL (STRAIGHT CARAPACE LENGTH): 41.0 cm. EXAM...
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Sea Turtle Hospital Patient – Kobia
Kobia Juvenile, Green (Chelonia mydas) Patient Status: Current. Date Found: July 16, 2018. Location: Near marker 57 by Kingfish boat ramp; Manatee County. Reason for Rescue: Positively buoyant. Triage WEIGHT: 10.8 kg. SCL (STRAIGHT CARAPACE LENGTH): 40.2 cm. EXAM...
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Baby Sea Turtles Rescued From Swimming Pool
Meet the Pool Boys Clearwater Marine Aquarium is currently rehabilitating several baby loggerhead sea turtles. A number of these hatchlings, nicknamed "The Pool Boys," were recently rescued after being discovered inside a swimming pool filter in Indian Shores,...
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Sea Turtle Hospital Patient – Hungry Hippo
Hungry Hippo is a green sea turtle who was found on July 8, 2018, floating near the southwest side of the Howard Franklin Bridge.
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Sea Turtle Hospital Patient – Jenga
On July 15, 2018, Jenga was found floating in Honeymoon Island State Park and was brought to a ranger station before being taken to CMA.
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Sea Turtle Hospital Patient – Bowser
Bowser was found floating and swimming sideways around St. John’s Sound, between Honeymoon Island State Park and Fred Howard Park on June 13, 2018. This was most likely due to gastrointestinal gas.
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Sea Turtle Hospital Patient – Claus
On November 27, 2017, a juvenile Kemp’s ridley was found stranded on a beach in Truro, Massachusetts due to cold body temperature.
read moreHow do the sea turtle patients get their names? The sea turtle rehab team names each sea turtle, and in order to come up with the names of the patients, the team comes up with different themes. We have had themes like cars, cereal and most recently, flowers! After a theme is selected, it goes in alphabetical order. Once all of the letters in the alphabet are used, a new theme is chosen. So if you are wondering why a sea turtle might have a funny name, it’s because of the order in which the sea turtle came in and what theme it is.
All marine turtle footage taken in Florida was obtained with the approval of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) under conditions not harmful to marine turtles. Footage was acquired while conducting authorized conservation activities pursuant to FWC MTP-18-172.
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