A hospital like no other

Saturday, March 3, 2012

MARATHON, FL – Richie Moretti never dreamed, when he opened a motel at Marathon in the 1980s, that it would lead to the establishment of the only state-certified veterinary hospital in the world for sea turtles. He was just interested in entertaining his guests when he stocked an old concrete swimming pool with unusual fish and sea creatures. But it was the time of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and a youngster asked him why he didn’t have any turtles in his menagerie. That got him thinking, and when an injured sea turtle turned up needing a place to recover, he accepted the first of what would be a thousand such creatures to come under his care. We saw Richie Moretti today, briefly, as he reported to our guide that they’d solved the mystery of their most recent patient’s ailment. He’s short, with long greying hair pulled back in a ponytail, and kind eyes. His leadership has changed the lives of hundreds of sea turtles, and educated as many human beings in how to protect them at every stage of their lives, from eggs to full maturity. Moretti bought the night club next door to his motel when it became clear he was no longer going to be in the hospitality business, and transformed it into the Turtle Hospital. It has an operating room, equipped with all the necessities for surgical interventions. Out back are holding pools for the patients where veterinarians and volunteers come to help them with physiotherapy and rehabilitation. In the parking lot are two turtle ambulances, equipped to pick up patients that can weigh over 100 pounds and snap through hard shells with their sharp beaks. After our tour today, I know a lot more than I ever did about sea turtles. I learned that they can’t retract their heads or legs into their shells like land turtles do. I learned that at around age 25 the males grow a tail but the females don’t. I learned that many communities have campaigns to get residents, who live near the beaches where the babies hatch and scamper to the sea, to keep their lights off at night in hatching season between May and October. That helps the babies aim for the waves, shining in the moonlight, without being led in the wrong direction by artificial lights. Of the seven varieties of sea turtles in the world, five live around Florida and four of these are endangered. The fifth, the loggerhead turtle, is threatened, so much of the Turtle Hospital’s energies are spent on educating people about not throwing trash into the water, taking care with monofilament fishing lines and refusing to buy products made from turtles’ shells, skin, eggs or meat. The hospital has no government funding, so they rely on public support. The three R’s of the Turtle Hospital are rescue, rehabilitation and release. It’s always a day of celebration when they can let one of their patients return to the sea. Our guide told us they did just that a couple of days ago, when the one-year waiting period was over and the fully-recovered creature could go back to the wild. It was great to see the outdoor tanks where the huge creatures were swimming around. Some had lost flippers, and others had been injured by boat propellers or succumbed to a virus that causes tumors to grow on their bodies. The ones we saw today are the lucky ones, tended to with loving care and returned, whenever possible, to their watery homes.