President Jimmy Carter and family members visited a Turtle Hospital and helped to release a rehabilitated sub-adult loggerhead sea turtle Friday off the Florida Keys.
After touring Marathon’s Turtle Hospital, the former president, his wife Rosalynn, and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren joined the hospital’s personnel as they released “Salty,” named by its rescuers, back to the wild.
The 70-pound reptile had convalesced at the hospital since October after it was discovered floating about six miles off the Sombrero Reef lighthouse in the Atlantic Ocean.
“Salty” suffered from an intestinal impaction and a lung infection, and was successfully treated with antibiotics, a specially formulated laxative to treat constipation and a healthy diet of squid and fish.
The Turtle Hospital is dedicated to treating and rehabilitating sea turtles and is fully equipped with three “turtle ambulances” for patient transport. The mission of its staff is to rescue, rehabilitate and release sea turtles in good health to their ocean home.
Carter and about 40 of his extended family members, including 11 great-grandchildren, visited the hospital and participated in the turtle release as a facet of their vacation in the Keys.
The extended Carter family was in the Keys as part of a post-Christmas holiday respite that is something of a tradition. They spent New Year’s Eve 1996 dining at the Harry S. Truman Little White House, Florida’s only presidential museum and former President Truman’s “vacation White House” in Key West.
Since the Turtle Hospital opened in 1986, the unique facility has treated and rehabilitated more than 2,000 injured sea turtles and assisted scores of hatchlings gone astray after exiting their nests.
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