Caretta caretta

Ah the ever-present sea turtle in my midst.

I can never tire of painting them, because people love them so much.

I love them too.

Enough to wake up at 4:15 in the morning to walk for their nests.

Sea turtles in general are either endangered or on the verge of it.

The most dangerous things are the fishing nets and the plastic.

When we went down to Florida several years ago, we visited the Turtle Hospital in Marathon Florida.

It is indeed a wonderful place of refuge and repair for several sea turtle species.

They do surgeries there on turtles that are victims of fibropapilloma.

These are growths that if they have not invaded internally, they can be removed.

Once removed, they wait six months to see if they reappear.

If they don't reappear, and the turtle is healthy, they release them back into the deep blue sea.

The hospital also takes cold stunned turtles, boat strikes, and floaters.

They have several longtime residents that have bubble butt syndrome.

Bubble butt is caused when a turtle is hit by a boat and has air forced into its shell.

They cannot swim properly or dive.

The hospital glues weights to them, allowing them to swim normally.

However, the weights fall off and have to be replaced.

As a result of this, they become permanent residents.

Cold stunned turtles generally just have to be warmed up, vet checked, and released.

Turtles that float frequently have gas in their intestines.

The gas is caused by various things in the environment, but most of all is caused by plastics.

Things floating in the water look appealing to a turtle, and they eat them.

This in turn causes them to have digestive issues and blockages.

We are slowly destroying our oceans, mostly with our garbage.

We can help the turtles by cleaning up after ourselves and educating others.

After all, we only have one world, and we all have to live on it!

Today was a busy day as usual.

It ended with a class at my church for my small group.

This is my 11th year teaching Scripts & Strokes.

I cannot believe it has gone on that long!

I am indeed grateful.

Caretta caretta, acrylic on shadowbox canvas, 12 x 36 inches

Day 85 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2022