KEY WEST, FL — A massive 170-pound loggerhead sea turtle nicknamed “Molly” was back home in the warm waters of the Florida Keys Tuesday after a successful surgery to remove a life-threatening tumor inches from her head and months of recovery that have gone viral on social media.
In August, a charter fisherman found Molly, an approximately 25- to 30-year-old loggerhead, trapped by commercial fishing lines tethering her to a crab trap. The fishermen noticed the lines were tangled around an enormous tumor near the left side of Molly’s head.
“She had multiple tumors, but that 10.1-pound tumor is what was really threatening her life,” said Bette Zirkelbach, manager of The Turtle Hospital, a small nonprofit organization working to rehabilitate endangered sea turtles in Marathon, Florida.
“It was taking all her good blood and she was anemic when she came in” Zirkelbach said. Once she was admitted, Molly received fluid treatment, antibiotics, vitamins and a pressure wrap on the large tumor to control bleeding.
Molly underwent a 3-hour-long operation to remove the tumor. Zirkelbach said it’s the largest tumor ever successfully removed and, after Molly tested with proper bloodwork, she was ready to return home.
Hours before she was set to be released into the ocean, Molly was fitted with a satellite tracking device, which will allow the hospital and the public to track her recovery and journey. The trackers from Sea Turtle Conservancy cost roughly $5,000 and are attached via nonheat epoxy to “glue” the bottom of the transmitter to the turtle’s shell. The goal is for the tracker to remain attached for six months to two years.
Molly’s tracker was fixed to her shell and then she was transported via “turtle ambulance” to Higgs Beach in Key West where a crowd of more than 100 people waited to see her final steps on sand. She was carried to the edge of the water and then, once on the sand, she immediately headed into the ocean and swam away.
Tristian and Tori Edsel were visiting from Columbia, South Carolina, and made the trip to the beach to see Molly’s release. “I think she beat all odds with the tumor … and then she successfully got to go back to where she’s from, the ocean,” Tristian Edsel said.
Zirkelbach reflected on the turtle’s long journey, “Molly has helped so many people around the world fall in love with sea turtles … She beat the odds.”