{"id":580405,"date":"2026-04-02T08:53:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/580405\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T08:53:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:53:20","slug":"marine-biologist-spends-92-days-removing-hundreds-of-deadly-barnacles-from-a-debilitated-turtle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/580405\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine Biologist Spends 92 Days Removing Hundreds of Deadly Barnacles From a Debilitated Turtle"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p>Marine biologist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/tabby.siegfried\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener nofollow\">Tabitha Siegfried<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/gulfarium.com\/carecenter\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener nofollow\">Gulfarium C.A.R.E. Center<\/a> spent 92 days carefully removing hundreds of barnacles from a <a href=\"https:\/\/laughingsquid.com\/?s=loggerhead+turtle\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener nofollow\">loggerhead turtle<\/a> named Syrena, who had a severe case of <a href=\"https:\/\/seaturtleguardian.org\/debilitated-turtle-syndrome\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener nofollow\">Debilitated Turtle Syndrome<\/a>. This very serious, often fatal, condition affects slower moving turtles who are not able to clean barnacles from their bodies. The amassed barnacles then compromise the turtle\u2019s immune system and cause multi-organ failure.<\/p>\n<p>92 days ago, we found her struggling offshore \u2014 weak, disoriented, and in critical condition. I didn\u2019t know if she\u2019d make it. But Syrena showed us what resilience looks like.<\/p>\n<p>While the condition is chronic, Siegfried and her team took appropriate action to help her recover and return to her aquatic home.<\/p>\n<p>After months of treatments, barnacle removal, antibiotics, and a whole lot of love\u2026 she swam back into the Gulf with strength and attitude (as she should).<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated Posts\n<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marine biologist Tabitha Siegfried of the Gulfarium C.A.R.E. Center spent 92 days carefully removing hundreds of barnacles from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-580405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}