"Toxic Workplace" Sent 150-Pound Injured Endangered Turtles From Boca Raton to Florida for Treatment

This week, amid staff unrest and claims of a toxic workplace, the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton received an order to remove endangered sea turtles.

Turtles weighing up to 150 pounds were removed from their tanks at the well-known environmental center and transported to other facilities across Southern Florida as ordered by state wildlife officials.

"Toxic Workplace"

The center, where the release of saved sea turtles had been a well-liked spectacle at the beach, is going through a difficult organizational transition at the time of their departure. On the same day that the program's veterinarian announced his resignation, the city laid off two employees, one of whom has a state license to rehabilitate turtles.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission then informed the nature center that it could no longer provide medical care for injured turtles and ordered that the turtles in the center be relocated.

150 Pounds of Endangered Turtles

Eight green turtles with one loggerhead, including those hurt by boat strikes, fish hooks, and sharks, were transported on Tuesday to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, Zoo Miami, and the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart. Since they had no chance of surviving in the ocean, two of the turtles, Morgan and Cane, had become steadfast residents of the Nature Center, however, as Gumbo Limbo has announced in their website, the resident turtles are on vacation.

The rehabilitation of sea turtles at the nature center has proven to be a very popular program, and the release of newly rehabilitated or healthy turtles is celebrated with cheers from hundreds of beachgoers.

On Wednesday, officials insisted that the turtle rehabilitation would go on even though it would need new personnel and a new state permit.

Whitney Crowder, who stepped down as the program's director on Monday, expressed her shock at the news of the sea turtles' transfer to other facilities this week. However, she said she felt the most sympathy for the permanent turtle residents who had to leave Gumbo Limbo after living there for almost ten years.

Transfer from Boca Raton to Florida

The sea turtles were taken out of the water as the city attempted to leave the sea turtle rehabilitation to an affiliated non-profit organization called Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards.

According to the city's spokeswoman, Anne Marie Connolly, the rehabilitation of sea turtles is not typically the domain of local government. She claimed that the resignation of the program's veterinarian and the declaration that the biologist who held the state permit to handle sea turtles didn't want to work for Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards made the turtle eviction necessary.

Crowder, who interacts frequently with the non-profit's staff, wrote to Boca Raton's human resources division, accusing the CEO, John Holloway, of mentally abusive and toxic leadership. She stated in an interview that she also seemed to receive a significant pay cut.

When the center is ready, the sea turtle program will resume, according to Holloway. He claimed that because nonprofit organizations are exempt from the restrictions that city employees are subject to, his members are enthusiastic about the potential that they can bring to rehabilitation programs, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

Meanwhile, according to the City of Boca Raton, a brand new seawater pump project worth $3.2 million will start working at the Nature Center. The rehabilitation efforts will be aided by this project to improve the seawater infrastructure, which will also benefit other aquarium ecosystems.