When Mike Papish, a diver and underwater photographer, first spotted Lenny — a 322-pound loggerhead sea turtle — he knew he needed to get him help. The turtle wasn’t using his front flipper, which was partially missing, and he had wounds on his head.
“It was most certainly from a shark attack,” Papish told The Dodo of Lenny’s injuries.
But rescuing a turtle of Lenny’s magnitude was no easy feat. It took the combined efforts of Papish and a crew of divers from Sundance Watersports to bring the loggerhead to their boat. And that’s when the realities of transporting a wild animal the size of a grand piano set in: “Once we got him fully on board, it wasn’t even over,” Papish said. “We had to barricade him with three gigantic ice chests full of ice, and even those he was able to just swat out of the way, so it took all four of us sitting on giant chests of ice barricaded around Lenny to get him back to shore.”
On land, Lenny was taken to The Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Florida, where he received fluids, wound care, antibiotics and laser therapy.
To call Lenny’s arrival at the hospital a “grand entrance” would be an understatement: “He was the largest loggerhead that I’ve ever seen,“ said Bette Zirkelbach, the manager of The Turtle Hospital. And, in her 13 years of managing the facility, she’s seen more than her fair share of sea turtles. The nonprofit hospital, which is dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing sea turtles in the Florida Keys, has treated more than 3,000 patients since it was founded in 1984.
After just two weeks of care at the hospital, Lenny was ready to be released.
“It was critical to get Lenny back out there because it was mating season in the Florida Keys,” Zirkelbach said. Loggerhead turtles are an endangered species. And Lenny, who is estimated to be 60 to 70 years old, is of reproductive maturity.
“Sea turtles are a vital part of the ecosystem,” Papish explained. “They keep our seagrasses in check by grazing them like cows do. If they don’t, the seagrass gets overgrown, and it smothers the coral and hurts the reefs.”
In late March, Lenny made a triumphant return to the waters where he was first found.
“It’s the best feeling,” Zirkelbach said of Lenny’s homecoming.
Since his release, Papish has crossed paths with Lenny several times, including during a recent encounter in early June.
“He’s doing better every time I see him. He’s got more strength in his injured flipper, and his swimming is stronger. When he goes up to get air, he gets it with more confidence. He doesn’t struggle like the day we released him” Papish said.
Papish describes Lenny’s personality as curious and a little playful: “Every time I see him, he comes in and does a lap right under the boat so all the snorkelers can see him, and then he goes back to deeper waters.”