Gumby the Turtle (SC Aquarium)CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) -- One special turtle got a second chance this Christmas and it came as a gift of freedom.
Gumby, a 40-pound juvenile loggerhead turtle, has been given a clean bill of health after a year and a half at the South Carolina Aquarium's turtle hospital.
The loggerhead washed up on the beach at Kiawah Island in June 2011 with very low bone density and was taken in by the aquarium. At the time, he only weighed six pounds.
"This disease is caused by a very poor diet and lack of UV light, essential components of bone growth and development," officials said in a press release. "All of this information leads staff to believe that this animal was taken into captivity as a hatchling and kept in very poor conditions before it was finally released into the ocean."
Gumby will be the 100th sea turtle to be successfully rehabilitated and released by the Aquarium's sea turtle rescue program. Gumby will return to the ocean on December 27 when he is released into the Gulf Stream off of the coast of North Carolina.
