APOLLO BEACH, Fla. — There is no way to definitively say how a green sea turtle ended up a mile from the coast in Dixie County in the middle of a rural dirt road. Was the turtle disoriented? Storm surge from recent hurricanes? Who knows. Without a giant heap of luck and Good Samaritans discovering the turtle, the majestic creature likely wouldn't have survived.
Nov. 11, the green sea turtle was found a mile from Horseshoe Beach at the intersection of SW 583rd Ave and SW Hwy 361. The location is very close to Buck Creek, hence the name "Buckley."
"Buckley was found on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, which is not a normal place for a sea turtle to be found," Ashley Riese, Director of theSea Turtle Conservancy Program at The Florida Aquarium, said. "Without those good Samaritans being in the right place at the right time and actually happening to find Buckley on that dirt road. Who's to say? There was probably no way that Buckley could make it back into the ocean."
The turtle is now getting a complete medical checkup at the rehabilitation facility in Apollo Beach.
"She did have some superficial abrasions on her plastron, which is the bottom part of her shell area. Right now, we're just working with Buckley to put on a little bit of extra weight. The other thing we did have to manage when Buckley first came in was that she did have, or he had low blood glucose levels. So it took us some time creating an individualized medical care plan to make sure Buckley received the treatments that Buckley needed to stabilize that blood glucose level," Riese said.
Buckley comes with another mystery. The team doesn't know if Buckley is a boy or a girl. The turtle is a sub-adult, only about 10 years old, so there is no way to tell gender unless they perform a surgical exam, which is invasive and unnecessary for her care. Staff called Buckley him/her during the interview and Paluska did the same thing identifying Buckley as a male in the intro and a female throughout the report, just to clarify the discrepancies.
"Buckley, as you can see, is doing fantastic. So, it's just a matter of feeding Buckley, giving Buckley all of the vegetables, sea grass, and seafood that Buckley wants, putting on a little bit of weight, and hopefully releasing Buckley very soon," Riese said.
Buckley didn't know that her name was the same as another Tampa Bay resident, Ed Buckley. When he learned about her story, human, Buckley had to help.
"The story of Buckley, the turtle, is amazing," Buckley said. "When I heard that they had rescued a turtle that had my same last name, how could I not be compelled to come in and help and to be able to come out watch Buckley, and she's very energetic, has just been absolutely amazing. She's going to have an individual medical plan and all these medical bills, so I thought, well, I'll step up. I'll pay for the first half of what we're going to raise. We're trying to raise $15,000, so I was fortunate enough to donate $7,500, and now we're going to raise the other $7,500, hopefully from the Tampa community, maybe the community across Florida, considering that Buckley has traveled so far already up from the Big Bend in Florida."
The plan is to get Buckley healthy and release her back into the wild. But she won't get lost again.
"We will be placing a satellite transmitter on this turtle," Riese said. "And, then, we can track Buckley on the journey and figure out where Buckley will go."
To help with Buckley's medical expenses, click here.
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