Meet Pennywise, a massive female adult loggerhead sea turtle weighing in at 302 pounds.
Pennywise is so large that when the veterinary team took her to Jupiter Medical Center for a CT scan, she was too wide, and they had to go to Palm Beach Equine Clinic in Wellington to perform the scan there.
She arrived at Loggerhead Marinelife Center on Monday, 5/19 after being found by Inwater Research Group. She was floating in the water with significant blunt force trauma to her shell, partially healed. LMC’s lead veterinarian Dr. Heather Barron estimated that Pennywise’s boat strike injury is about a month old.
After getting Pennywise scanned at Palm Beach Equine Clinic in Wellington, the veterinary team at LMC got a surprise; Pennywise is “gravid” or carrying eggs. Pennywise is a known nesting turtle in our area, and our research team encountered her back in 2022, successfully nesting with no major injuries. You can see the eggs on the scan below.
The veterinary team is working hard to get Pennywise healed, healthy and back to the ocean for nesting season.
Pennywise is a textbook case of a turtle returning to the area for mating and nesting season, only to fall victim to an entirely preventable boat-strike injury.
To decrease unintended harmful interactions between boaters and threatened and endangered sea turtles during sea turtle nesting season in Florida, Loggerhead Marinelife Center asks boaters to practice turtle-safe boating in the voluntary Sea Turtle Protection Zone (STPZ) is established from March 1 – October 31, encompassing all 45 miles of Palm Beach County extending from shore to one mile offshore.
We ask boaters to practice turtle-safe boating:
- Limit travel time within the Sea Turtle Protection Zone (one mile offshore) to prevent unintended boat strikes from harming sea turtles.
- Travel at a minimum safe speed when in waters within one mile of shore.
- Wear polarized sunglasses and designate a spotter to watch out for wildlife at the ocean’s surface.
More info on the protection zone here – https://marinelife.org/conservation/sea-turtle-protection-zone/
You can also learn more about Pennywise and see Dr. Barron’s interview with the Associated Press here.