Gumbo Limbo loses rehab license; turmoil surrounds new management

By Steve Plunkett

Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s injured and recuperating sea turtles were moved to other facilities, its veterinarian quit, and the coordinator of its turtle rehabilitation program and her assistant no longer have jobs.

“The rehabilitation facility is CLOSED until further notice,” the city-operated Boca Raton nature center said on its website March 15, later tempering the language to read that the rehab center was in “transition” and “TEMPORARILY CLOSED.”

The unexpected turmoil comes as

Boca Raton was preparing to hand off operation of the rehab program to the nonprofit Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards, formerly known as the Friends of Gumbo Limbo, which has long paid for the veterinarian and her equipment.

The Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach took six of the program’s turtles; Zoo Miami is caring for two and the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart has one. Seven of the turtles are patients; two, named Morgan and Cane, were Gumbo Limbo “residents.”

The turtles were moved March 14, city spokeswoman Anne Marie Connolly