A royal tern was hit by a car in 1968 along the then-new Sanibel Causeway.
That single accident led to the rescue of tens of thousands of Southwest Florida’s most beloved creatures and the establishment of the region’s only sea turtle treatment facility.
Islander Shirley Walter found that royal tern, took it home and nursed it with friends, and from that effort grew the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife, or CROW, a well-known wildlife hospital.
More than 500 calls came in that first year, and nowadays the clinic treats more than 6,000 animals during busy years.
Now CROW is in its latest chapter ― rebuilding the sea turtle complex and other enclosures that were lost to Hurricane Ian nearly three years ago.
