The Turtle Hospital

The Turtle Hospital was founded in 1986 by a local businessman who owned a motel and nightclub in Marathon and grew determined to help the injured sea turtles he saw around the Keys. He converted parts of his property into a facility for their care, turning motel rooms into treatment spaces and the pools into rehabilitation tanks. Over the years it evolved into a fully permitted, veterinary-staffed hospital devoted to the animals.

That unusual origin is still visible today. The hospital retains the footprint of the old motel, which gives it a distinctly Keys character, and the transformation from roadside lodging to turtle care center is part of the story guides tell. What started as one person's compassion has grown into an institution that has treated and released thousands of turtles over the decades.

The turtles that arrive at the hospital carry the marks of the modern ocean. Many are struck by boat propellers, a leading cause of injury in the busy waters of the Keys. Others swallow or become entangled in fishing gear and plastic debris, or fall ill from ingesting trash. Some suffer from a bubble-butt condition, in which trapped gas leaves a turtle unable to dive, often the aftermath of a boat strike.

One of the most striking afflictions is fibropapillomatosis, a disease linked to a herpes-type virus that causes tumors to grow on a turtle's skin and eyes, sometimes blinding it or blocking its ability to feed. The hospital's surgeons remove these tumors and nurse the turtles back to health. Each patient's story, displayed for visitors, is a small lesson in how human activity and disease threaten these ancient animals.

Treatment can be quick or can stretch on for a long time. Turtles undergo surgery, are given antibiotics and special diets, and rebuild their strength in the recovery pools until the staff judge them fit for the wild. The great reward of the work, and of a visit, is the release: healthy turtles are carried back to the water and set free, sometimes at public events that draw crowds to cheer them on.

Not every turtle can go home. Some are too badly injured to survive on their own, missing flippers or permanently unable to dive, and these become permanent residents of the hospital. They serve as ambassadors, helping visitors understand the dangers of the sea and the value of the rescue work, and living out their lives in care rather than being lost.

The waters of the Florida Keys are home to several sea turtle species, among them the green, loggerhead, hawksbill, and Kemp's ridley, all of them protected and most of them threatened or endangered. They nest on Florida's beaches, graze the seagrass flats, and forage the reefs, and their survival depends on both clean water and dark, undisturbed nesting beaches.

By treating individual turtles and teaching the public, the Turtle Hospital contributes to the larger effort to protect these species. Its work connects visitors directly to the animals and to simple actions that help, from cleaning up fishing line to boating carefully in shallow water. A tour turns an abstract conservation issue into a face-to-face encounter with a recovering turtle.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.