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Jolly The Giant Green Sea Turtle Returns To The Ocean

Mariela Care
/
Florida Keys News Service
Jolly, a green sea turtle estimated to be at least 50 years old, is released back to the ocean off the Florida Keys on Friday.

The Turtle Hospital in Marathon released a 330-pound green sea turtle back to the sea off the Keys Friday, just in time for nesting season.

The turtle was found entangled in multiple crab trap lines in February off Marathon. A veterinary team partially amputated her right, rear flipper.

As is the Turtle Hospital's custom, she was nicknamed by her rescuers, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Officers Jeff Carroll and Olly Adams. They named her Jolly.

She is a giant green, if not a green giant — one of the largest turtles ever to be treated at the Turtle Hospital, manager Bette Zirkelbach said in a press release from the Keys Tourist Development Council.

"Nesting season in the Florida Keys starts in April, so she being a mature female, she can get out there in time to date and hopefully lay some eggs," Zirkelbach said. Sea turtles don't start reproducing until they're 20 or 25 years old, she said.

"Jolly is probably 50-plus years old," she said, "so that's why we want to make sure we get her out so she keeps making baby turtles."

Nancy Klingener was WLRN's Florida Keys reporter until July 2022.
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