New Veterinary Hospital Uses Medical Imaging
to Save Sea Turtles
It’s not easy being a Sea Turtle, but thankfully, there is an
organization dedicated to saving their lives.
Just as real estate prioritizes location, so too do sea turtles, whose habitat choices are driven by survival. Young turtles, vulnerable to cold stunning, favor regions with stable temperatures. As they mature and gain resilience, they often migrate northeast, venturing into areas with greater climate variability. Sea turtles face formidable odds from hatching, battling natural predators, climate change, cold stun events, and human-induced threats that jeopardize their journey to adulthood.
Stunning Events
In 2021, a historic winter storm put much of the United States into a deep freeze, triggering a mass cold stunning event that impacted nearly 11,000 Texas sea turtles. Sea Turtle, Inc’s response team was put to the ultimate test and rescued 5,557 sea turtles in eight days. They even used the South Padre Island Convention Center as a makeshift warming facility.
Sea turtles are cold-blooded and cannot regulate their body temperature. Consequently, as water temperatures decrease, so do the sea turtle’s body temperatures. When the temperature drops to a critical level, sea turtles suffer from hypothermia, become unable to move, and float to the surface and need to be warmed to survive.
Sea Turtle, Inc estimate that in years where cold stunning events occurred, they faced patient surges of anywhere from 100 to 5,000 cold stunned sea turtles.
Sea Turtle Inc to the Rescue
Sea Turtle, Inc., a top South Padre Island, TX attraction, drawing tourists eager to witness and learn about sea turtles. The organization has experienced a consistent rise in patient numbers, with 2024 marking a record high, according to CEO Wendy Knight. To address this, Sea Turtle, Inc. embarked on a major expansion — constructing the world’s largest fully enclosed sea turtle hospital.
Pictured above: Ila Fox Loetscher, founder of Sea Turtle, Inc.
Sea Turtle, Inc Milestones
Founded in 1977 by the legendary "Turtle Lady of South Padre Island," Ila Fox Loetscher, Sea Turtle, Inc. initially focused on protecting the Kemp's Ridley sea turtle. Operating solely on public donations and gift shop sales (receiving no government funding), the organization has since broadened its mission to encompass education, rehabilitation, and conservation for all sea turtle species.
On March 1, 2025, they unveiled a new $8 million, 15,000-square-foot veterinary hospital facility, representing a significant advancement in their conservation efforts. This privately funded facility includes a research center, cold stun treatment area, education center, and more advanced imaging capabilities, including an X-ray machine and a CT scanner (with some help from their medical imaging distributor friends at MXR) for veterinary imaging. The entire facility, including their medical imaging is solely devoted to sea turtle health.
The dedicated hospital aims to expedite patient care with hopes of reducing the average 115-day patient stay observed in 2024, by facilitating faster veterinary diagnostic imaging tests.
The new facility with enhanced veterinary radiology capabilities will more greatly enable their organization to pioneer innovative research pertaining to sea turtle health through easy access to medical imaging equipment. According to Knight:
There is a lot of research about disease — specifically internal tumors and the like— where for sea turtles, there is limited imaging available. This will make a significant difference because as we continue to research diseases like fibro papillomatosis and other issues that are impacting sea turtles internally, we will be able to have an exceptionally larger number of internal images than most research bases have been able to have before, simply because of availability.
Pictured Above: "Hooky," a 10.3-lb juvenile green sea turtle, recuperates at Sea Turtle, Inc after being rescued from the Boca Chica jetties then treated for a fishing hook injury sustained to their right flipper.
A Sea Turtle Hub
“Sea Turtles regulate their body temperature by the water.” says CEO Wendy Knight. “We have beautiful 75° weather year-round. So, the sea turtles just stay here where they're safest when they're young. It’s better to be here when you're small than in Boston when it's cold."
“We rescue and release almost 10,000 baby sea turtles per year. Our core patients are juveniles...So they’re about the size of a salad plate to a large dinner plate.” Knight said.
Small Non-Profit, Big Initiatives
With the assistance of 21 staff members and a little over 350 volunteers, Sea Turtle, Inc. patrols hundreds of miles of shoreline, operate a stranding hotline 24/7, run a residency program for unreleasable patients, occasionally take in patients from other facilities nationwide, and more.
They typically admit between 100 to 150 rehab patients annually and. receive 40% of their patients from public sightings reported using information from their signage. The other 60% of their patients are found by their staff and volunteers that patrol the area's beaches and bays yearly looking for hurt or injured sea turtles.
A Multi-Faceted Problem
Sea turtle hatchlings face daunting odds from birth, contending with natural predators on land and sea. On beaches, they are vulnerable to birds, crabs, and other wildlife, while seabirds and fish pose threats in the water. Few hatchlings survive to adulthood, with estimates ranging from one in 1,000 to one in 10,000.
Human activities exacerbate these challenges, with accidental capture, illegal poaching for eggs, meat, and shells, and unsustainable harvesting further depleting populations. Plastic pollution leads to problems like ingestion and entanglement. Scientists estimate that at least 1,000 sea turtles die annually due to plastic entanglement.
Imaging Innovative Conservation for the Future
Sea Turtle, Inc is hoping that the updated hospital with its advanced veterinary medical imaging equipment will usher in the groundbreaking work that eventually creates a world of thriving sea turtle populations. MXR is proud to support the organization alongside their ongoing sea turtle conservation efforts to make a global impact.
Join MXR in supporting Sea Turtle, Inc’s efforts to save sea turtle lives every year. To learn more about how you can help, visit here.
