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In March, a cold-stunned 65-pound green sea turtle washed up on a Boca Grande beach suffering from poorly healed propeller slashes to his back and near death from the harsh winter weather.

His medical team dubbed him Quasimodo because his back humped badly after coming out on the losing end of a collision with a boat propeller.

It took nearly three months but Quasimodo was released June 30 at a Boca Grande Club beach by the rehab team from Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton. Rehabbed turtles are released from the beach where they nest because they will instinctually return there anyway.

Rebecca Scarbrough of Gumbo Limbo said it makes the staff's day when they can release a patient.

"This is our first visit to Boca Grande," she said. "We had to return to the captive site. Quasimodo got a first-class ticket."

Quasimodo was the third green turtle released off Boca Grande beaches so far this year and there will be more. There have been 14 turtle strandings on the island since April.

Quasimodo needed a couple of nudges to head to the Gulf waters. He soon acquired a watchful covey of birds as he disappeared into the surf from view of the small crowd watching onshore.

"He's been anxious," said Evan Orellano of Gumbo Limbo. "He's not a small turtle."

The cold first three months of the year set 50-year records in Boca Grande and statewide and took the lives of hundreds of turtles. Rehab centers filled beyond capacity while dealing with the after-effects of the cold snap have managed to save an estimated 85 percent of turtles who stranded alive.

Gumbo Limbo alone has treated more than 200 turtles, including 178 cold-stunned cases.

Quasimodo was a special case. His deformity gave him a case of "bubble butt," which Orellano said can be fatal to turtles, who need to eat and sleep on the sea floor. The bubble trapped his body's gases and made it difficult from him to stay on the bottom. The problem was corrected by surgery.

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