Turtle Rehab Center

~on our way home from key west we planned on visiting the turtle rehab center we heard about. the 4 of us are all adventurous and love creatures of all kinds so we were excited to get the opportunity to check out some turtles. it was definately a neat experience but wasnt quite everything we thought it would be. in visiting the facility we thought we would get to touch and hold some turtles, but after the introductory speech we learned how fragile the turtles at the facility can be. so its better we left the touching to the people that had to care for the turtle. on a side note: it was upsetting to learn the impact humans can have on wildlife. obviously we are aware of the impact as oils spills and such but to see the images of turtles with something as simple as fishing line wrapped around its leg, getting wound so tight it eventually cuts off their flipper was hard to look at. and one thing i learned is how much trash/waste turtles will eat. in the speech you see pictures of fishing hooks and numerous other things trapped in the turtles intestines causing stomach gases to build up. they build up so bad that it prevents the turtles from being able to dive down under the water, thus leaving them sitting ducks for predators such as sharks or once again the impact of humans and their motor boats. in learning of what turtles are able to swallow we also learned that due to the shell it is almost impossible to surgically remove the items they ingest. so that means the vet staff has to give the turtles stuff such as Maalox and vegetable oil to help pass the items. and they save some of the stuff turtles have passed and its painful to think of these items having to come out the rear of them...fishing hooks so big they would barely even fit in your mouth let alone down your intestines, and the fishing line thats thicker than weed whacker line. and the fishing line info hit home since ive been fishing for years and now being a mate i have thrown plenty of fishing line over board. yet after the speech i learned it takes fishing line around 600 years to biodegrade in the ocean. so i will no longer be doing that. besides my own impact or the impact of humans its hard to learn what some people in this world thinks is "cool". meaning... while on our visit we saw a turtle that is permanently scarred from some ass-whole that thought it would be cool to use a spear gun on a turtle. the bastard put a complete hole in the shell just missing the spinal cord and leaving a hole that you can completely see through, (its the turtle in the last pic, look towards the back of his shell) that will never heal and cover over. the turtle is doing well and should recover but that does not justify what some bonehead tried doing. on an upside we got to see baby turtles up close, which for me was a first. we still could not touch them but they sure were the cutest things ever. they do this survival tactic where they tuck their flippers up on their shell and just drift with the current and its so cute to watch. oh and i forgot to mention with our visit we got a tour of the operating room, so we got to see when they perform surgeries and take the x-rays of the turtles. it was so cool see how high tech they were. it was a pleasant thought to think after all we do im harming these animals that we at least have good equipment to help save a few of them. most of the machines used like the anesthesia machine are actually ones that are used on humans. it was a little disappointing not getting to touch a turtle, but seeming how some of my habits could have negatively effected a turtle..... i guess its better i just left them alone.