SARASOTA – A loggerhead sea turtle may have had a run-in with a shark, but this story has a happy ending.
“It’s an exciting day,” Lynne Byrd said. “Our goal is always to put them back out there in the wild and giver her life back, give them a second chance, and just it feels wonderful.”
Mote Marine Lab found her on Boca Grande Beach, August 2019. Medical Care Coordinator, Lynne Byrd says she had been previously tagged on the east coast, in 2005 during nesting season, and then seen again in 2009.
But, she looked different this time.
SOT: Lynne Byrd – Medical Care / Rehab Coordinator for MOTE MARINE LABORATORY
“The last time she was seen nesting she had all her flippers, and somewhere between 2009 and when we received her, she lost her flipper,” Byrd said. “She had a lot of blood loss, because her blood value showed her hematocrit really low, and that was part of her ailment.”
Larissa is missing half of her right front flipper. Byrd thinks it was a shark.
“We assume it’s a shark, it looked like a shark bite,” Byrd said.
Her rehabilitation was a typical one. They didn’t have her on antibiotics as turtles are amazing healers. Oral fluids, a clean environment, and good natural care helped her get healthy again.
“She gained 25 pounds, she was a little skinny when she came in,” Byrd said. “She loved to eat, she ate from the day she came in, which is a little unusual.”
She was two hundred and fifty pounds when they let her go. Beach visitor, Jenny Siess, said she had never seen a turtle that big before, she was amazed.
“It was pretty inspiring,” Jenny Siess said. “It’s really great to see conservation work in action, and you know whatever I can do to help from this point would be amazing.”
Siess says moving forward, she hopes to get involved with the aquarium and continue to recycle.
If you want to see their hospital patients, their cases are on their website at motemarine.org.
