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MARATHON - The world's only state-certified veterinary hospital for sea turtles has started offering tours to the public in the Florida Keys.
Visitors can take a 90-minute educational tour at the Turtle Hospital where more than 75 percent of its turtle patients have been successfully treated and released since its inception in 1986.
The public can learn how the hospital opened and explore the facility, seeing equipment used in the care of the turtles. A veterinarian technician's description of more than 50 different sea turtles in residence - hawksbill, loggerhead, green and Kemps Ridley - is followed by a question-and-answer period.
Visitors view the preparation room where turtles needing care are cleaned, weighed, photographed and measured. They also learn how blood tests can help determine the relative health of a turtle. The tour continues outdoors, where turtles in holding pens are fed shrimp, squid and food pellets each afternoon.
The Turtle Hospital opened with the goals of mending injured sea turtles and returning them to the wild; educating the public through outreach programs to local schools; conducting and assisting with research in conjunction with state universities; and working toward environmental legislation to make beaches and water safer and cleaner for sea turtles around the world.
Richie Moretti, the hospital's founder and owner, hopes the tours, which began last weekend, will help raise money to establish a perpetual fund to care for the turtles.
"These turtles have been around hundreds of millions of years and they've stayed virtually the same," Moretti said. "They have lots of secrets to tell us. We just have to keep looking."
-- For more information, visit www.turtlehospital.org or call 305 743-2552.