Fla. Keys Rescued Turtle Heading To New Home On The West Coast

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MARATHON (CBSMiami/AP) A loggerhead sea turtle recovering its strength from a possible boat injury is leaving its Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital after more than a year for its new permanent home.

Hospital staffers are making the final preparations Wednesday for the turtles 2,500-mile journey to San Diegos The Living Coast Discovery Center.

Staff at the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Fla., scrub and wash Sapphire. (Source: Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau/HO)

The 129-pound subadult female named Sapphire cannot be released into the wild because she cant submerge without weights attached to her shell. As she grows, the weights will fall off and new ones must be attached.

She has bubble butt syndrome, said Turtle Hospital Manager Bette Zirkelbach. She is unable to evacuate air from her lungs due to a spinal cord injury, so unfortunately for Sapphire, she is non-releasable.

Because of a boat strike injury, Sapphire cannot submerge without weights affixed to its carapace. (Source: Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau/HO)

Sapphire was first rescued in February 2010 with a wound that came from a boat strike, Zirkelbach said. The turtle spent 45 days in treatment and was freed after it appeared she was fully recovered. However, in May 2013, Sapphire was found floating off the Keys.

Florida wildlife officials decided Sapphire needed a forever home.

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Fla. Keys Rescued Turtle Heading To New Home On The West Coast