Sea turtle released at Lido Key after rehabilitation at Mote

Clarice the loggerhead sea turtle was ready to return home. 

After about four and a half months of rehabilitative care at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium's Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital, the adult loggerhead turtle was released the morning of March 18 at Lido Beach.

“Today was a great day,” said Gretchen Lovewell, stranding investigations program manager. “These are the days that we really live for.” 

Clarice was found on Oct. 31, 2023, Halloween night, about three miles off the coast of the Venice Fishing Pier. The turtle was lethargic, and weighed down by something called epibiota — a term for organisms living on other organisms, usually as parasites.

It’s like a small ecosystem on a turtle’s shell, Lovewell described. 

Photo by Carter Weinhofer

“When they’re not feeling well, we’ll see more and more of that growth show up on the shell,” she said. 

Clarice also had some prop strikes, scars from previous injuries possibly from a boat. Those have since been resolved, according to Lovewell. 

According to a news release from Mote, it appeared that Clarice suffered from debilitated turtle syndrome, which required immediate attention from the staff. The team put Clarice in a rehab pool and began care. She was fed a variety of organisms, from crabs to fish. 

Photo by Carter Weinhofer

Over the course of a couple weeks, Clarice’s environment at Mote began to change incrementally. Staff would adjust the depth of water of her tank as she got stronger and more active, and her diet continued to be monitored. 

Other treatments, like antibiotics, iron and deworming, helped her according to Mote.

Then, 136 days after her rescue, Clarice was ready to be released. 

Before getting back in the ocean, though, staff equipped Clarice with a satellite tag. With those tags, researchers are able to follow her behavior after release, and also get insight into the habitat and migration of loggerhead sea turtles as a whole.

Photo by Carter Weinhofer

During an average year, Lovewell said the hospital could see an intake of about 100-120 turtles. 

“It feels fantastic to see this after a long, hard journey of the rehab,” Lovewell said. “Whenever we can get this full circle and get the back out, it’s fantastic.”