A $500,000 gift keeps the surgeons of a sea turtle hospital at work

In Juno Beach, Florida, Loggerhead Marinelife Center runs one of the world's leading sea turtle hospitals — where turtles arrive with boat-strike injuries, fishing-line entanglements and tumours, and a veterinary team works to return them to the ocean. The Betty Wold Johnson Foundation has given the centre $500,000 for its surgical suite, expanded in 2024 and now bearing the foundation's name. In 2025 the centre treated more than 230 juvenile and adult patients and more than 1,500 hatchlings, with a 76% survival rate. The suite doubles as a classroom for veterinary students. 'Specialized surgical care can mean the difference between life and death for a sea turtle,' said chief science officer Dr Heather Barron — and the gift also trains the next generation who will provide it.

SDG 14 · Life below water — Mechanism: funding & finance