Sick sea turtle washed up by Nicole now recovering at Clearwater Marine Aquarium
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Nicole's impact extended further than homes and businesses – the massive storm also had an effect on sea life.
The Clearwater Marine Aquarium is currently caring for a turtle after they say rough waters from Tropical Storm Nicole washed him ashore in Holiday. He was found Friday after someone called to report a sea turtle acting lethargic and not moving.
"Further assessment shows that he actually has a condition called fibropapillomatosis which is a virus that causes tumor growths on the soft tissues of all of our sea turtles, and it affects primarily our green sea turtle species," said Clearwater Marine Aquarium Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Specialist Cassandra Starr.
Starr explained that "Badlands" is a juvenile sea turtle likely anywhere from 1 to 10 years old.
"We have determined he's also slightly buoyant, which a lot of times could mean he has some type of GI gas too, that could be contributing to this buoyancy, but when he first came in, he actually was a little on the thin side, but he's behaving like he's alert. He is aware of his surroundings," Starr said.
He's not able to dive for food without rising to the surface. Starr said rough waters from storms like Nicole can make it difficult for sea life to swim in and can sometimes wash them ashore, which is likely the case with Badlands. For the last few days, veterinarians with CMA have been keeping a close watch on him, taking his vital signs and running tests to figure out his needs.
"We will send him to CT to see if there's any tumors growing internally. If that comes back clear and there's nothing growing inside then we will continue treatment and hopefully what we'll do is he'll get to the level where we'll be able to perform surgery and remove the tumors," Starr said.
If the tumors are internal it would mean they are terminal meaning he would have to stay in the care of CMA because he wouldn't be able to survive if released back into the wild. So far, Badlands is the only turtle they're treating that was impacted by the storm, but they encourage anyone who finds sea life in distress to report it to FWC.
CMA will know more about Badlands and recovery timeline when test results come back sometime next week.
Each visit to CMA allows the team to provide a second chance at life for animals like Badlands.
Anyone may visit their working animal hospital and see the team in action.Keep track of all the animals currently in rehabilitation at cmaquarium.org.