South Carolina Aquarium to offer
BEHIND-THE-SCENES TOURS OF THE SEA TURTLE HOSPITAL
Tours of the sea turtle hospital available two days a week.

Formerly off-limits to the public, the South Carolina Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital opened its doors to guests for the first time last Wednesday, July 11. Exclusive new Behind-the-Scenes Tours of the Hospital are now available for purchase. The tours, conducted weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays at 1:00 pm, will offer visitors a firsthand look at the efforts of the Aquarium’s team of trained professionals as they care for sick and injured sea turtles each day through the Aquarium’s renowned Sea Turtle Rescue Program. Attendees will meet the Hospital’s current “patients,” and hear about the intensive treatment and daily care that help to nurse the vulnerable turtles back to health.

The South Carolina Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Rescue Program helps to ensure that sea turtles have a vibrant future in our oceans. When an unhealthy or injured sea turtle is found along the coast, it is brought to the Sea Turtle Hospital by the Department of Natural Resources where staff and volunteers monitor and take care of this threatened animal in the Aquarium’s state-of-the-art facility. The Hospital, established in 2004 at the Aquarium, was the first dedicated turtle rescue and rehabilitation facility in South Carolina. Since then, 22 rehabilitated sea turtles have been successfully released to the wild as a result of the Program.

Lighthouse, a juvenile loggerhead sea turtle stranded off the Charleston coast in June 2006, was one of the many rescued turtles rehabilitated and released by the Aquarium. Lighthouse was found in a very anemic, emaciated and dehydrated condition and loaded with external and internal parasites. The root cause of this inexplicable illness, dubbed Debilitated Turtle Syndrome (DTS), is unknown. DTS commonly affects and kills sub-adult loggerhead sea turtles and could have led to a fatal outcome for Lighthouse had the Aquarium not revived the turtle back to health. Aquarium staff treated Lighthouse for one year before the turtle was able to be successfully released into the Atlantic Ocean. A satellite tracking device enables Aquarium staff, researchers and the public to follow Lighthouse’s journey. Visitors can track Lighthouse online through the Sea Turtle Rescue Program’s website: http://www.scaquarium.org/seaturtle/rescue

Tickets to the Behind-the-Scenes Tours of the Sea Turtle Hospital can be purchased on-site at Aquarium admissions, however, reservations are recommended and can be made by calling (843) 577-FISH (3474). For more information on tickets and prices, please visit www.scaquarium.org/visit/tickets.