Sea Turtle Missing a Flipper Heading Home
"Gilda" spent the last five months undergoing rehabilitation at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. CLEARWATER - For the past five months, CMA sea turtle staff members have been rehabilitating Gilda, a Loggerhead missing her front right flipper. After two-and-a-half years of rehabilitation at two different facilities, she is once again ready to go home to the ocean. Staff members from the Loggerhead Marinelife Center came and picked the 190-pound turtle up this morning. She will be released later today behind the Center in Juno Beach on the East Coast of Florida, where she had been a resident since October 2008. Gilda was rescued from the Port Everglades Power Plant after most likely getting struck by a cruise ship. Gilda was brought to CMA to have a larger and deeper pool to swim in. Visit www.marinelife.org to follow Gilda's travels through satellite tracking. Clearwater Marine Aquarium is a Florida non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, dedicated to marine life rescue, rehabilitation and release, and environmental education. CMA is home to dolphins, sea turtles, river otters, stingrays, nurse sharks, and more. Winter the dolphin's story of survival and inspiration has touched millions of people around the world. A movie about her life story is in the works with Warner Bros.-based Alcon Entertainment. Her documentary, "Winter: The Dolphin that Could" is available at www.SeeWinter.com. The film takes viewers on an extraordinary journey through her rescue, fight to stay alive and extensive rehabilitation. Scholastic published Winter's Tail: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again in October 2009.
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