375-pound creature spent months healing from likely attack. See Bubba’s release in Florida

A large sea creature that appeared to be injured from an attack by a predator was found and taken in by a Florida zoo.

Now, Bubba the loggerhead sea turtle is back in the ocean after a three-month stint at the Brevard Zoo’s Sea Turtle Healing Center, officials said.

On April 10, biologists in St. Lucie County discovered Bubba with injuries to both his front flippers, the zoo said in a news release. They used a crane to extract the 375-pound animal from the water, and they brought him to the zoo’s healing center, officials said.

During his health exam, they estimated he was between 60 and 75 years old, likely meaning he’s a great-grandfather.

The old turtle also weighed more than most of his loggerhead peers, exceeding the average range of 200 to 350 pounds, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But his front flippers appeared mangled, and marine leeches had made him anemic, the animal care team said.

The team started him on a course of antibiotics, a freshwater bath to remove the leeches, wound cleanings and cold laser therapy on his injured flippers, according to the center.

And three months to the day after he was found weak and hurt, he was ready to be released.

The afternoon of July 10, crowds gathered on the sand and even stood in the water in Cocoa Beach to watch Bubba return home.

In a video shared on Facebook by the Brevard Zoo, a group carried Bubba off the bed of a pickup truck and deposited him on the water’s edge. He crawled into the ocean, with the crowd supporting him and recording, until he disappeared into the surf.

Brevard County is on Florida’s Atlantic coast, about a 55-mile drive southeast from Orlando.