MARATHON, Fla. – A beloved sea turtle named “Scooby” is finally on the mend, after marine scientists at The Turtle Hospital in Marathon help save her.
The juvenile sea turtle was rescued after she was found stranded on Indian Harbor Beach near Melbourne in March. The local sea turtle rehabilitation centers were at capacity, so Scooby was transferred by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission to The Turtle Hospital in the Florida Keys.
The turtle hospital is the first licensed veterinary hospital for sea turtles in the world.
Scooby was emaciated with critically low blood levels. Her entire body was encrusted in barnacles and over the next several weeks, doctors at the hospital painstakingly and carefully removed those barnacles one by one.
As they removed the barnacles, Scooby got stronger and stronger. She responded well to other treatments included broad spectrum antibiotics, fluids, vitamins, and a healthy diet of mixed seafood.
She also began swimming stronger in The Turtle Hospital’s seawater pools.
Scooby has also become quite the viral star. As of Monday, one of the TikTok videos of her recovery has amassed more than 30 million views and a second one of her videos got 20 million views.
The barnacles were not too pretty to look at. But it is very common for sea turtles to host them.
Scooby was fitted with a satellite transmitter tag on Tuesday and be released back out into the ocean on Wednesday afternoon in Melbourne, not far from where she was rescued.
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