The turtle may have also been brushed by a boat and received a blunt-force injury. Visible marks on Timmy\u2019s head and neck led Zirkelbach, who has worked at the hospital since 2012, to believe the turtle had some impact with a boat, which could have caused her to act abnormally in the water.<\/p>\n
Under the care of specialists at the hospital, Timmy responded well to treatment and didn\u2019t exhibit any abnormal behavior once placed in the hospital tank for further observation.<\/p>\n
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The team at the Turtle Hospital worked to determine the cause of Timmy\u2019s erratic behavior in the water, whether it was something neurological or the result of a boat strike.<\/p>\n
\u00a9Courtesy of the Turtle Hospital \u2013 Original<\/a> \/ License<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not unusual for a wild animal that\u2019s never been in captivity to not act normally in a tank,\u201d adds Zirkelbach. \u201cFor the first 24 hours, she did what loggerheads normally do when they\u2019re put into a hospital tank, then settled down. She\u2019s eating pretty much everything we put in front of her. She has a hearty appetite, and her blood chemistry is testing within normal limits.\u201d<\/p>\n Timmy\u2019s Decades-Long Journey<\/p>\n Weighing approximately 270 pounds, Timmy was estimated by the team at the Turtle Hospital to be between 70 and 80 years old. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible to see an animal that has been in our ocean for so many decades that still looks pristine,\u201d says Zirkelbach. \u201cShe still has all her flippers, and her carapace, her shell, is in good shape.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Additional background information was provided by flipper tags, previously placed on the turtle from the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Sarasota County, which revealed that she had already nested three times during the 2026 season, with her most recent nest laid on July 9, days before her rescue.<\/p>\n Considering her nesting activity, another theory about Timmy\u2019s behavior was that she was in the middle of mating and was interrupted. \u201cYou may see turtles at the surface look like they\u2019re fighting, and we get reports of that and videos all the time during mating season<\/a>, but there\u2019s usually another turtle involved,\u201d says Zirkelbach. \u201cIt\u2019s possible she was mating, and a boat came up on her, and the male took off.\u201d<\/p>\n After thriving in the hospital tank, Timmy was moved into a larger 160,000-gallon tidal pool at the hospital, which provides more of a natural environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The odds are stacked against them out there.<\/p>\n Bette Zirkelbach, Manager, The Turtle Hospital<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cObviously, it doesn\u2019t mimic the deep ocean, but it\u2019s better than the hospital tank,\u201d Zirkelbach says. There, the medical staff continued to observe Timmy\u2019s behavior and eventually decided she was ready to return to the ocean.<\/p>\n This 160,000-gallon tidal pool more closely mimics her natural environment.<\/p>\n \u00a9Courtesy of the Turtle Hospital \u2013 Original<\/a> \/ License<\/a><\/p>\n Human Impact<\/p>\n Today, there are an estimated 36,000 to 67,000 mature female loggerhead turtles nesting worldwide, though some sources suggest the number could be higher. Like most sea turtles, loggerhead turtles are often threatened by marine pollution, entanglement in commercial fishing gear as bycatch, vessel strikes, and climate change, which can alter sand temperatures and sex ratios. Warmer sands produce more female turtles, while cooler nesting sites breed males.<\/p>\n While Timmy\u2019s story ends with her return to the ocean, not all rescued sea turtles have such positive outcomes. Despite life-saving efforts by the team at the Turtle Hospital, Mini\u2014another recent adult loggerhead patient\u2014suffered damage to her spinal column from a boat strike and later succumbed to her injuries.<\/p>\n Since the Turtle Hospital opened in 1986, it has treated more than 3,000 sea turtles. This year alone, Zirkelbach has already seen an increase in boat strikes impacting sea turtles.<\/p>\n \u201cThe odds are stacked against them out there,\u201d says Zirkelbach, who says they\u2019ve had as many as 40 turtles come into the hospital in one evening. Most turtle injuries or illnesses are caused by a common culprit: human activity.<\/p>\n While boat strikes are the most common threat, Zirkelbach says they also find turtles entangled in fishing gear and lines, or turtles that have ingested plastics or other synthetic materials\u2014often resulting in impactions due to a lack of natural food sources.<\/p>\n Previous flipper tags, placed on Timmy from a research facility in Sarasota County, revealed that the turtle had already nested three times this year, including days before her rescue.<\/p>\n \u00a9Courtesy of the Turtle Hospital \u2013 Original<\/a> \/ License<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhen what they normally eat isn\u2019t readily available, they start eating other things that get them into trouble,\u201d says Zirkelbach. \u201cSea turtles are opportunistic eaters, so they eat what\u2019s in front of them. Baby turtles are eating tiny bits of plastic and synthetics, and in postmortem studies of these hatchlings, plastic was found in the gastrointestinal tracts of as many as 93 percent of them. We really need to do better and realize that even though it\u2019s out of sight, out of mind in our trash can, a lot of that ends up in our oceans.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to pollution, artificial lighting<\/a> along the beachfront\u2014which often redirects hatchlings away from the ocean\u2014and coastal development have further reduced the reproductive success rates of sea turtles.<\/p>\n\n
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