Release announcement! Join us tomorrow, June 6th, 2023 at 10:00am at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park for a sea turtle r…

Release announcement! Join us tomorrow, June 6th, 2023 at 10:00am at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park for a sea turtle release. We will be releasing three turtl…es tomorrow: Mango, a 72 pound subadult loggerhead who was accidentally caught at Pensacola Beach Fishing Pier and brought to the CARE Center on 5/25/23. The external hook she was caught on was easily removed, but her radiographs showed that she had hook fragments in her stomach and a J hook in her intestines. She passed the J-hook and the additional hook fragments on her own and is eating and diving well. Watermelon, a 148 pound subadult loggerhead was foul hooked at Okaloosa Island Fishing Pier on 5/26/23. The J-hook she was caught on was easily removed from her front right flipper, but her radiographs revealed four hooks and hook segments in her GI tract. Watermelon is eating well and also passed the internal hooks on her own. Like many of our turtles with internal hooks, we typically feed them squid with cotton balls to encourage the hooks to move through smoothly! Lastly, Orange, a 108 pound subadult loggerhead was foul hooked at Navarre Beach Fishing Pier on 6/3/2023 after being accidentally hooked in the left front armpit region. The external hook was easily removed and all three turtles have been medically cleared for release. We are pleased to have them here for such short stays at the CARE Center and hope you will join us as we bid them farewell back into the Gulf of Mexico tomorrow.