Loggerhead sea turtle released after rehab in Florida

A big-headed sea turtle named Rocky briefly paused on the sand Wednesday morning before slowly crawling into the Atlantic Ocean after spending six weeks in rehabilitation at the Loggerhead Marine Life Center in Florida.

The turtle hospital staff and volunteers greeted the turtle as it came down the beach, which is right across the street from the center. Rocky has been fitted with a blue tracking device on his back that allows staff to continue to follow the large turtle.

Rocky, a 220-pound female turtle, was found swimming off the coast of North Hutchinson Island Dec. 29 with a ruptured lung caused by a boat strike, Andy DeHart, president and CEO of the center, said Wednesday.

The turtle “had a perforation in the lung, so air was trapped in the body cavity, making it essentially what is called a bobber,” Dehart said. “He couldn’t dive. He couldn’t go under.”

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The goal of the center is to rehabilitate the turtles and return them to their natural habitat.

“So each of these animals that come back is critical to the survival of the sea turtle population, especially a large breeding female like Rocky,” he said. “Seeing that getting back to nature is really something magical.”

Juneau Beach is just north of West Palm Beach on Florida’s Atlantic coast.

Last year, the center tracked about 18,000 turtle nests along a 16-kilometer stretch of beach. Most of the nests were occupied by the most endangered leatherback turtles, along with cephalopods and green sea turtles. The nesting season lasts from March 1 to the end of October.