Bowser, a male loggerhead, was "foul-hooked" and found with three fishing hooks stuck in and on his body upon its rescue
Credit: Gulfarium C.A.R.E. Center
NEED TO KNOW
- Volunteers rescued a 172-pound loggerhead sea turtle named Bowser after it was foul-hooked on a Florida fishing pier
- The Navarre Beach pier is a hotspot for turtle entanglements with 26 rescues already recorded there in 2026
- Bowser is recovering at a rehab center where vets removed multiple fishing hooks from his body and esophagus
Eight men gripped a rope on the Navarre Beach Fishing Pier and hoisted a 172-pound loggerhead sea turtle some 35 feet above the Gulf of Mexico.
According to Inside Climate News, the rescue took place on Sunday, June 7, when the male turtle, later named Bowser, had been foul-hooked near his left front flipper by a fisherman casting off the pier. Within 25 minutes, volunteers from the Navarre Beach Sea Turtle Conservation Center guided the animal into a rescue net and loaded him onto a Kawasaki UTV. Bowser thrashed on his way to the rescue facility, which a volunteer described as a positive sign.
"That's a good sign," said Cheri Dexter, one of the volunteers who led the rescue. "If they're lethargic or just lying there, that's a bad sign."
Bowser was the 26th turtle rescued from the pier so far in 2026, and the 27th followed two days later. In 2025, the center rescued 59 turtles from that same stretch of water, mostly loggerheads and green sea turtles during Florida's sea turtle nesting season, which runs from May through October.
Credit: Gulfarium C.A.R.E. Center
The Navarre Beach pier is the longest in Florida, extending 1,545 feet into the Gulf, which also makes it one of the state's most active sites for turtle entanglements. From 2000 to 2022, Santa Rosa County, where Navarre Beach is located, accounted for 56% of fishing pier entanglements reported along Florida's Gulf Coast, according to a study by researchers at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
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Cheri and Scott Dexter lead a team of 26 FWC-certified volunteers to conduct turtle rescues and transport animals to approved rehabilitation facilities. Scott designed and built the specialized hoist system used to lift turtles over the pier railing. The volunteers rotate between morning and evening hours when sea turtles are most active.
Bowser was transferred to the Gulfarium CARE Center in Fort Walton Beach, where the staff removed the fishing hook from his front left flipper and a second, lodged in his esophagus. X-rays also showed a third hook, also in his esophagus, from a previous encounter. The team confirmed Bowser would undergo a separate sedated procedure to have it removed manually.
"We'll actually do something where we feed them, along with their normal fish, cotton balls that have mineral oil on them," said Mary Fomby with Gulfarium, who explained that the proposed procedure will be less invasive. "Ideally, what happens is it gets caught on the hook and kind of creates a barrier around the tip of the hook to keep it from latching on to any other parts of their intestines."
Fomby confirmed that the team is currently treating 31 turtles received from across the Florida Panhandle and even neighboring states, including Alabama.
According to the National Park Service, all five sea turtle species found in the Gulf are listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Beyond fishing entanglements, the animals face growing threats from boat strikes and climate change.
"Especially here in Florida, the concern is that our beaches are so hot that we might be producing more females than we are males, and that could affect the population overall," added Valerie Nicole Tovar, conservation manager for the Loggerhead Marinelife Center.
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