MARATHON, Fla. – Former President Jimmy Carter and family members visited a turtle hospital and helped to release a rehabilitated sub-adult loggerhead sea turtle off the Florida Keys.
Salty, a 70-pound reptile named by its rescuers, had convalesced at Marathon's Turtle Hospital since October after Salty was discovered floating about six miles off the Sombrero Reef lighthouse in the Atlantic Ocean, the Florida Keys News Bureau reports.
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Salty suffered from an intestinal impaction and a lung infection. The Florida Keys News Bureau reported that Salty was successfully treated with antibiotics, a specially formulated laxative to treat constipation and a healthy diet of squid and fish.
Carter and about 40 of his extended family members visited the hospital and participated in the turtle release as a facet of their vacation in the Keys, the Florida Keys News Bureau reports.
Since it opened in 1986, the Turtle Hospital has treated and rehabilitated more than 2,000 injured sea turtles. The Florida Keys News Bureau reports that the facility has assisted scores of hatchlings gone astray after exiting their nests.