(l-r) Lauren Hitselberger, Dr. Shelby Loos and Kara Portocarrero work on Terra, the first turtle to be rehabbed at Gumbo Limbo since March 2023. Photos provided by Coastal Stewards
By Steve Plunkett
Armed with a new state permit, the nonprofit Coastal Stewards were poised to care for their first sick or injured sea turtle. That first patient, Terra, arrived on April 26.
The juvenile green sea turtle was discovered four days earlier, on Earth Day, with fishhooks in a flipper and down its esophagus. After X-rays and sedation, veterinarian Shelby Loos removed the hooks. Terra was receiving ongoing care to ensure it was eating and recovering before being released, the Coastal Stewards said.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had issued the group a permit to rehabilitate and release ailing sea turtles on April 9. Even before Terra arrived, the Coastal Stewards had scheduled a “Grand Opening Splash” and open house at Boca Raton’s Gumbo Limbo Nature Center from 12:30 to 4 p.m. May 9.
“We are thrilled,” John Holloway, the nonprofit’s CEO and president, said in a release.
“Sea turtles have long been synonymous with Gumbo Limbo Nature Center,” Leanne Welch, the center’s city-employed manager, said in the same release. “We are excited for our visitors to once again have the opportunity to witness firsthand the threats faced by turtles and share in their hopeful journey of rehabilitation and release.”
Also in residence now at Gumbo Limbo is a third non-releasable sea turtle that checked in on April 29. Named Lady McNubbins, the green sea turtle has injuries to its front flippers and is staying in Boca Raton temporarily until an under-construction permanent home in Port Canaveral is ready.
The FWC ordered all sea turtles transferred away from Gumbo Limbo in March 2023 after the city terminated its sea turtle rehabilitation coordinator, who held the FWC permit, and her assistant coordinator. Also moved were the center’s two “resident” sea turtles, which could not survive on their own in the ocean and were deemed non-releasable.
The firings came as the city was developing a plan to transfer the rehab unit, including its financial obligations, to the nonprofit and a month after the unit’s on-call veterinarian resigned.
Since then, the Coastal Stewards hired veterinarian Loos full-time and two other employees to qualify for a new permit. They also paid to repair the plywood floor under the rehab unit’s holding tanks and shortened their name from Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards to just Coastal Stewards.
Originally the group was called the Friends of Gumbo Limbo with a focus on caring for sick and injured sea turtles at the nature center.
The road to the new permit was hampered by a series of missteps. The Coastal Stewards applied for a permit both to keep non-releasable turtles in captivity and to treat ailing turtles. As time went on, the city applied for a non-releasable permit without telling the nonprofit. When the Coastal Stewards objected, the city withdrew its application.
But later, the FWC said the Coastal Stewards would have to show “ownership or control” of the nature center’s multimillion-dollar aquariums to be able to keep non-releasable turtles in them. The nonprofit withdrew its application, and the city submitted its own.
Again in an attempt to speed the process, the Coastal Stewards amended their application for veterinary care to delete seeking to treat sea turtles with Fibropapillomatosis (FP).
But the state said treating FP, a tumor-causing disease, was a major reason for a Gumbo Limbo permit, so the application had to be resubmitted.
Under Holloway, the Coastal Stewards have expanded their mission to include saving sea grass, dolphins, manatees and whales with an eye to expanding their base of members and donors. Last summer they created a Youth Leadership Council.
In December, the group hosted a “Winter Wishes Celebration” at FPL’s Manatee Lagoon in West Palm Beach. In February they moved their offices from Federal Highway in Boca Raton to an unincorporated pocket on State Road A1A between Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes. On April 13, the Coastal Stewards were the supporting sponsor for the city of Boynton Beach’s Earth Day celebration at Centennial Park.
With their announcement of receiving the FWC permit, the Coastal Stewards said they had increased their membership tiers. A student membership is now $25 a year, individuals are $65, couples are $100 and families are $200.
And they have renamed the rehab unit at the nature center “Robyn’s Place” after Robyn Morigerato, who died recently, a west Boca volunteer who joined the Friends of Gumbo Limbo 17 years ago and served in various posts on its board of trustees.
Morgan, one of Gumbo Limbo’s former resident turtles, returned to the center in January. A new resident, a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle named Lefty, arrived in February.
Gumbo Limbo continues to be a busy place, with work crews finishing construction of an observation tower, ADA-compliant restrooms, ADA parking spaces and new decking around the main building.
They are all on schedule to be completed in late May or early June, “but that is dependent on many factors,” said Welch, the nature center’s manager.
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