Visiting the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital – a Special Florida Keys Experience

Halfway through the Florida Keys you’ll find the Marathon Turtle Hospital, which is open for public tours. This is a great place to add to your Overseas Highway road trip plan if you’re an animal lover or are interested in learning about man’s impact on the oceans. Visiting the Marathon Turtle Hospital is also a great way to help a good organization helping Florida’s wildlife.

When you’re plotting out your drive from Key Largo to Key West don’t forget to add this special stop. We’ve got the full scoop on what you can expect at the Marathon Turtle Hospital and tips for visiting with kids. I think it’s a great activity and maybe you will too! If you have any questions about this or other things to do in Marathon, please leave a comment or send us a note. We’re always happy to share more!

Highlights of the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital

Because we spend a lot of time on the water in the Florida Keys and beyond, we get to see a lot of sea turtles of all sorts. Usually it’s a fleeting experience, but often we can see that the turtle have something stuck to them, either human trash or some sort of growth. This is what the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital works with and tries to help the turtles recover from.

When you visit, you will hear about the different types of turtles found all through the Florida Keys, the problems that harm or endanger them and how they are treated. The biggest goal with the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital is rehabilitation and release, but that’s not always possible for every animal that comes in. As you go on your guided tour through the different parts of the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital you’ll see animals in all sorts of situations. Sometimes when you arrive there may be a surgery happening as the doctors work to remove tumors caused by pollution in the ocean, and sometimes you’ll see a turtle in recovery from a boat strike (when an animal gets hit by a boat hull or propeller). There are lots of situations you’ll hear about and see.

As somebody that enjoys boating and being out on the water (including doing a Florida Keys boat rental), everything I learned and heard here definitely stayed with me and comes to minds when I’m out on the water, from my own safe boat driving to collecting trash we come across when we’re boating. Seeing the injured and sick sea turtles is a good way to get people to understand how they impact the environment and wildlife even if they don’t think they’re connected to it.

Note: you can only visit the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital as part of a guided tour. You need to arrive on time (reservations are recommended).

Visiting the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital with Kids

Getting kids up close with animals is one of the best ways to get them to care about wildlife. Ideally they’ll get to see creatures in the wild and develop an appreciation there, but that’s not always the case. Visiting the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital with kids is ideal because they get to see and learn about sea turtles up close AND they can see what plagues them out in the wild. Our kids have such big hearts for wildlife that our tour very much held their interest and inspired them.

Our guide encouraged questions about all elements of the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital, from how the turtles were treated to what the process of releasing a rehabilitated sea turtle goes. Kids think of things adults never do, or at least never say out loud, so visiting the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital with kids and hearing what their biggest concerns were as we went was fascinating. Learning about wash-backs forever changed how we walk on the beach at home or when we’re traveling through the Keys.

Our kids had many questions about when wash-backs occur, about the weather and setting for them, and how they should take care of the babies if found. If you’re not familiar, a wash-back is when newly hatched sea turtles make it to the ocean and then either get pushed back ashore by the waves or get caught in a current that forces them ashore, often trapping them in sea weed and other flotsam. Since then, when we are at the beach or the edge of any grassy flats we always look for baby sea turtles in hopes of being able to save them.

Note: because this is a medical facility, the sea turtles, from babies to healthy adults, are not allowed to be held or touched by visitors.

Being Prepared for the Sea Turtle Hospital

When you’re planning your visit to the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital, remember that this is a medical facility. It’s fascinating, and in some ways fun, to visit, but it’s very much a sterile place with lots of procedures and care. You don’t need to bring backpacks and snacks and such. The tour runs about an hour and a half and there are opportunities to sit if needed. I do recommend having snacks before your tour starts, especially if you’re visiting the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital with kids.

If you wanted to bring camera gear to photograph the different types of sea turtles and their afflictions, you can bring non-intrusive gear (small) but you may receive instructions about use and subject matter. Visiting the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital is a great opportunity to capture the experience and education, and then to share it with others so that progress can be made to lessen the human impact on marine life.

Getting to the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital

As noted in the name, the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital is located in the town of Marathon in the Middle Keys. Specifically the sea turtle hospital is at the southern end of the key just before you exit the main town area to begin traveling across the Seven Mile Bridge. If you’re driving towards Key West on the Overseas Highway and make it to either the parking area for Historic Pigeon Key or you end up on the Seven Mile Bridge you’ve gone too far. Coming from the north (Islamorada or Key Largo) the Marathon Sea Turtle Hospital will be on your right side, and coming from the Lower Keys and Key West it’ll be located on the left side of the Overseas Highway. There is plenty of parking and you should be able to enter the lot with ease. It’s leaving that can be more difficult if there’s traffic.