Gulf Specimen Marine Lab (GSML) seeks $50,000 in strategic funding to expand our Sea Turtle Hospital and establish a dedicated quarantine system for treating sea turtles affected by Fibropapillomatosis (FP). This expansion addresses a critical regional gap: North Florida’s only FP-specialized rehabilitation facility has recently closed and may remain inactive for up to a year or longer during relocation, set up of their new facility, and permitting process.

With no operational FP facility between Central Florida and the Panhandle, GSML is now the closest and most capable site to treat, rehabilitate and release incoming FP-positive turtles. At the same time, our hospital continues to receive increasing numbers of non-FP patients—including turtles suffering from boat strikes, cold stunning, entanglement, and accidental hook ingestion—further highlighting the need for expanded infrastructure. Sea turtles with fibropapillomatosis are becoming more common with the rising sea temperatures. While this condition historically has only affected Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydras), it has now been diagnosed in every species of sea turtle. We expect that numbers of FP turtles will continue to increase over time, and there is a severe shortage of facilities and veterinarians to treat these animals.

Over the past two years, GSML received more than 15 FP-positive turtles, all of which had to be transported 2.5 hours away to the Panama City facility that has now closed. Without this expansion, future FP cases may require transport to facilities over four hours away, which is unsustainable for our limited staff and volunteers. This is also detrimental to the turtles due to the increased stress of transport which will negatively impact health and prognosis, lack of capacity at FP facilities, and issues with release location. Continued green turtle population recovery has also resulted in a steady rise in rehabilitation cases across our region.