Rescued Loggerhead Back In The Water

SARASOTA, FL — There’s a new loggerhead sea turtle swimming in waters off Lido Beach courtesy of the folks at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium. After spending nearly 100 days at the organization’s Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital, Sea Salt was returned to the wild late last week.

The Friday, Feb. 3 release “went very well,” Lynn Byrd, Mote’s medical care and rehabilitation coordinator, said in a Wednesday statement. “It is always a great day when we are able to release these animals back to their home.”

Sea Salt, a subadult male, was outfitted with a satellite tag before his release. His progress can now be tracked online via SeaTurtle.org.

Sea Salt spent 97 days at Mote’s turtle hospital after he was found by local anglers floating about a mile off Holmes Beach in Manatee County back on Oct. 30. When he was brought to Mote’s hospital, the young sea turtle was “very lethargic” and had no interest in eating. Mote medical staff helped Sea Salt keep up his strength by providing him daily fluids. Antibiotics were also required to help the turtle fight off an infection, the organization explained in its statement.

Sea Salt’s tracking device is about the size of a cellphone. It will enable Mote’s researchers to gain a better understanding of how rehabilitated sea turtles reorient to their natural surroundings, Mote officials said.

"By tracking turtles like Sea Salt, we can learn more about the behavior of adult male sea turtles; they never return to land like females do, so it's difficult to study them,” said Kristen Mazzarella, Mote senior biologist. "The satellite tag will allow us to follow his post-release travel as it sends us his location when he comes to the surface of the water. Fortunately, we can compare this turtle to other tagged loggerheads that have been tracked by Mote and other institutions around the Gulf."

Mote has been tagging nesting sea turtles since 2005 and “opportunistically tags adults males that have been rehabilitated at the Mote Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital,” officials said. Before 2017 arrived, Mote had outfitted some 125 sea turtles with satellite tags. Five of the previously tagged turtles may also be followed on SeaTurtle.org. Their names are Zach, Murph, King, Bruno and Joey II.

“We have learned from previously tagged males that they travel long distances to encounter females during nesting season and that males also have foraging grounds which they use annually,” Mazzarella said. “While we often retrieve the satellite tags from females when they return to the nesting beach, we actually hope Sea Salt’s doesn’t return and continues to transmit his ocean locations for up to two years and teach us about where adult males hang out, their diving behavior, speed, whether they are at the surface a lot or spend most of their time under water or whether their behavior changes from season to season or year to year and what types of environments they are using.”

The anglers who spotted Sea Salt struggling in the water back in October did the right thing by alerting authorities, Mote stressed on Wednesday. People who encounter sick, distressed or dead sea turtles, dolphin or whales in Manatee or Sarasota county waters are urged to call Mote’s Stranding Investigations Program at 941-988-0212. The number offers 24-hour response service.

Sightings of distressed, sick or dead marine life outside of Sarasota and Manatee counties should be reported to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922.

Photo of Sea Salt’s release courtesy of Mote Marine Laboratory