By ARABELLA SERRATA
Staff Writer
Sea Turtle Inc [STI] recently unveiled their new hospital for the first time on March 1. The hospital is the largest enclosed sea turtle hospital in the world, according to their website.
The hospital serves as an extension of the preexisting museum building. When walking into the hospital, guests will see various rooms and educational material pertaining to sea turtles. Each of the sea turtle patient care rooms will have a window so visitors can see Sea Turtle Inc.’s medical staff at work.
In the surgical center, visitors can see surgeries, treatments, necropsies, and other critical care turtles. This center is where turtles receive “24 hours a day, seven days a week maintenance,” according to Chief
Executive Officer Wendy Knight. The turtles can enter the rest of the hospital to receive further treatment and therapy once they are no longer in critical care. The hospital is equipped with a sea turtle MRI machine. Guests can see the turtles get scanned and watch the results come out live. The hospital also features a research center, where Sea Turtle Inc staff will be “solving major problems that are impacting the population of sea turtles,” said Knight.
The first thing guests see when they walk into the hospital is what Knight calls the “wow tank.” This tank stores longtime and now permanent resident, Cowgirl. Guests can observe the turtles within the tanks
through windows.
The hospital utilizes what Knight calls “experimental education” for visitors. “We want you to come in and put your hands on it, understand it and see it work,” said Knight. Hands-on educational material includes a
3D model of a sea turtle’s mouth, a projection map on how a turtle eats and digests food, models of turtle anatomy and physiology, and more.
“You’ll be able to immerse yourself in a cold stun room that helps you understand the urgency of what happened in the cold stun event,” said Knight. “…It’s all interactive and subversive, you’re going to be right in
the middle of all the action.”
The hospital, open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is located at 6617 Padre Boulevard, South Padre Island. For more information and updates, visit their website at seaturtleinc.org or
their official Facebook page.
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