Her name is Nutella. Four months ago, this sweet sea turtle arrived at the Turtle Hospital in the Florida Keys barely alive. The doctors weren't sure she'd make it.
This Earth Day more than 200 people gathered on a beach in the Florida Keys to watch her beat the odds.
"Nutella was a long shot," said Bette Zirkelbach, manager of The Turtle Hospital. "And she is one that I seriously did not think was going to make it. In addition to having horrific fibropapilloma tumors on her body and her eyes, she was entangled in fishing line to the point that she almost lost the flipper due to lack of circulation and had ingested a lot of fishing line."
When rescuers found the juvenile green sea turtle off Key Largo last December, she was tangled in fishing line. Her body and eyes…covered in tumors. To make things worse, she had swallowed even more of the fishing line.
The team massaged her flipper back to life with a sweet, and unlikely treatment — honey and laser therapy. Surgeons then removed the tumors in two separate procedures. And over the next few weeks, Nutella was able to pass the fishing line she swallowed.
Nutella arrived at the Turtle Hospital weighing in at 15 pounds. She left at 20.
Before Nutella went back to the ocean, children gathered on the sand at Sombrero Beach as Zirkelbach talked about turtles and what we all can do to protect them.
"We recently saw astronauts go to the moon," Zirkelbach said. "And there are amazing pictures. And they look back. And one memorable quote I heard from them is that they saw one planet, one living planet. So, all of us are connected. And it's important to remember that today on Earth Day."
Steven Vandervaan drove down from Sarasota on vacation. He brought his newborn and his nephew who had never seen a sea turtle.
"They've never even seen a sea turtle before," Vandervaan said. "So that was really cool to explain to them why they're letting it back."
And if you’re wondering how she got her name, it came from the two young children of the family that rescued her. The staff suspects they're pretty big fans of the sweet spread.
For 40 years, The Turtle Hospital has rescued and treated more than sea turtles, nursed them back to health, and returned them to the wild. On Earth Day, they sent back one nobody expected to make it.
To learn more, visit turtlehospital.org.
