South Carolina Aquarium on Charleston Harbor: Conservation and Research ~ Sea Turtle Rescue

"Cape Romain"
Loggerhead (Caretta caretta)

Stranding Location:	Cape Romain Bay, Cape Romain Wildlife Refuge
Arrival Date:	May 17
Age:	over 30 years old (adult male)
Weight:	270 pounds

Case History
The front left flipper is badly injured from fishing gear entanglement and has 3 strains of bacterial infection but the prognosis is good.

Treatment
Anitibiotic injections ($50 per every other day!), Vitamin K and B-Complex injections, pain medication, flipper therapy - hydro therapy, massage therapy, topical antibiotics.

Updates
This is the first adult male sea turtle to be treated in the Aquarium's sea turtle hospital. He was reproductively active upon arrival. 6/18/07 Cape Romain has been slowly losing his flipper bit by bit. Surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, June 20 to amputate. Although we are sad to have Cape lose the flipper, he will navigate just fine in the wild. There are many documentations of turtles with missing flippers migrating great distances! "Take heart," one collegue tells me... 7/19/07 Cap

Release Date
11/03/2007

Release Location
Isle of Palms, SC

Photo thanks to Barbara Bergwerf