Once blown off course, six rare turtles are returned to their original habitat Regards, Royal Navy
Photo Credit (Pixabay)
Six sea turtles, cold-stunned and beached after being blown thousands of miles off course, got a lift on a Royal Navy ship back to their home in the Azores.
The six loggerhead sea turtles were probably blown off course by a storm before being shocked into lethargy by the chilly North Atlantic waters. Loggerhead sea turtles are found in the milder waters far to the south of the British Isles.
They might have even perished after washing up on Devon and Cornwall beaches, but two nearby marine sanctuaries’ volunteers saved them and brought them back to health.
The caregivers at the Anglesey Sea Zoo and Newquay Blue Reef Aquarium were unsure of what to do with the tropical mariners once they were fit again. Not only could they not be returned to the North Atlantic, but neither aquarium possessed the means to ship them across the continent.
Join HMS Medway as it sails from the Azores to the Caribbean, where it will be providing disaster assistance and counternarcotics patrol.
In addition to her usual cargo of food supplies, machinery spare parts, and disaster relief/aid kits, Medway also loaded six loggerhead turtles, named Jason, Gordon, Perran, Hayle, Holly, and Tonni
She left Plymouth last week with the intention of replacing her sister ship, HMS Trent. Along the way, she made a brief detour in the Portuguese archipelago to facilitate the “repatriation” of turtles.
According to Rod Jones, the Senior Maritime Environmental Protection Adviser for the Royal Navy, “many of us are keen to do what we can to reduce the loss of biodiversity at sea as professional mariners.”
One of the greatest pleasures of sailing is seeing marine life, therefore we are happy to help, even in a tiny manner, to increase the likelihood that this will happen in the future.
While the Royal Navy’s principal function may not involve helping turtles return to warmer waters, as a government agency we are delighted to be able to support the UK’s vision for more diverse and healthier seas.
