The sea turtle tells us the health of the ocean, the ocean tells us the health of our planet.
Dear Friend of Loggerhead Marinelife Center,
On behalf of our team of staff and volunteers, I want to thank you for helping us celebrate a very important year in our efforts to preserve sea turtles and their ocean home.
Meet Seabastian:
Seabastian is a loggerhead sea turtle patient who arrived at Loggerhead Marinelife Center’s (LMC) Sea Turtle Hospital with a grim prognosis. Because of your generous support and passion, Seabastian was granted a second chance. 2018 was an important year for ocean conservation: In April, we celebrated Earth Day with a global theme of ending plastic pollution.
In June, National Geographic published their iconic issue, “Planet or Plastic”, which focused on the threat of plastic to our world’s oceans, and this summer, we witnessed global corporations, such as Disney and Marriott (and many others), ditch the single-use plastic drinking straw. In the U.S., we throw away 500,000,000 single-use plastic straws each day; enough to wrap around the earth 2.5 times.
Thank you for helping LMC be a part of these global conversations. The time to protect our sea turtles and oceans has never been at such a critical moment.
• Each year, billions of pounds of trash and other pollutants enter the ocean.
• Over 100 million marine animals are killed every year due to plastic debris in the ocean.
• 100% of LMC’s patients arrive at our hospital with some form of plastic ingestion or entanglement.
From human impacts, such as boat strikes and pollution, to water quality issues, including algal blooms and red tide, our pristine ecosystems are under constant threat. We need your help more than ever before. We have one Earth, there is no Plan(et) B… We share our planet with wildlife, and we know that, “The sea turtle tells us the health of the ocean, and the ocean tells us the health of our planet.”
Contributions from generous donors like you allow LMC to save more sea turtles, protect beaches and better advocate for the ocean. Please make your tax-deductible donation by December 31, and help sea turtles like Seabastian have a second chance at life.
Seabastian is a juvenile loggerhead sea turtle who was brought to the Sea Turtle Hospital at LMC on April 15 after being rescued at DuBois Park in Jupiter, FL. His carapace (top shell) was fractured, and his body was covered in barnacles, algae, and leeches. Seabastian arrived at LMC as one of the sickest patients we have ever seen, with a red blood cell count of 2%, the lowest red blood cell count ever recorded in our hospital’s history. Seabastian’s prognosis was grave.
Through the generous support of donors like you, LMC’s Chief Veterinarian Dr. Charles Manire, and his team of staff and volunteers, were able to conduct a blood transfusion on Seabastian. Blood was taken from another LMC sea turtle patient, “Guy Harvey”, who was the Center’s healthiest sea turtle patient at the time.
After the transfusion, Seabastian’s red blood cell count went from 2% to 6%, enough for his own bone marrow to kick in and start making more healthy red blood cells of its own. This process ultimately saved his life. Through ongoing treatments and therapy, Seabastian continued to improve. Thank you for making this possible.
In September, well-wishers cheered as a recovered Seabastian paused to gaze at his ocean home, take in the sea air, and then quickly make his way to the azure waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Seabastian was finally home.
With your continued support, we can create more positive outcomes like Seabastian’s.
Every single rehabilitated sea turtle we release back into the ocean, combined with our ongoing research efforts, brings us one step closer to winning the fight against human impacts on our oceans and marine life. With your help, we can continue to tell these success stories and help additional sea turtles, like Seabastian.
The time is now. How can you help? Your year-end gift will ensure more sea turtles like Seabastian will successfully return to their ocean home. Your support is a critical factor in providing more conservation and education impact. Thank you for joining forces with Loggerhead Marinelife Center. With your continued support, we can make a real difference in sea turtle and ocean conservation. Together, we can continue making Waves of Progress!
Our work is far from over. We are just getting started.
With Gratitude, Jack E. Lighton
President & CEO, Loggerhead Marinelife Center
