Six rare turtles have been returned to their original Atlantic habitat thanks to the Royal Navy. The Navy linked up with two marine life organisations to deliver half a dozen loggerhead turtles to warmer waters after the creatures were washed up on the UK shores and nurtured back to health.
Crew of HMS Medway released the vulnerable creatures off the Azores as the patrol ship heads towards the Caribbean.
Medway sailed from Plymouth last week to relieve her sister ship HMS Trent, supporting international counter-drug smuggling operations across the Americas, and assisting island communities should they be ravaged by storms during the hurricane season.
Alongside her regular cargo of food supplies, spare parts for machinery, disaster relief/aid kits Medway, the Portsmouth-based ship also loaded Jason, Gordon, Perran, Hayle, Holly and Tonni – six loggerhead turtles cared for by aquariums in Cornwall and Anglesey.
With the creatures now sufficiently developed, the time had come to ‘repatriate’ them – but they had to be returned to their warm, native waters… which meant a delicate mission. With HMS Medway due to head to the Caribbean on deployment, the Royal Navy offered to help out.
The creatures were gently dropped into the Atlantic off the Azores, swimming past Medway’s crew who had gathered on the flight deck to watch the repatriation.
“As professional mariners, many of us are keen to do what we can to reduce the loss of biodiversity at sea,” said Rod Jones, the Royal Navy’s Senior Maritime Environmental Protection Adviser.
“Encountering marine wildlife is one of the great joys of seafaring and if we can assist, even in a small way, to make that more likely in the future we are pleased to be able to do that. Assisting turtles to return to warmer waters may not be the Royal Navy’s primary role but as a government body we are very pleased to be able to support the UK’s ambition for more healthy and diverse seas.”
The juvenile turtles were swept from the Caribbean or Eastern Seaboard of the USA by strong winds and Atlantic currents. Once in the cold waters around they UK they quickly become ‘cold-stunned’ and would have died had they not been washed up and rescued.
Five came ashore in Cornwall and Devon and have been cared for since by staff at Newquay’s Blue Reef Aquarium, while the sixth creature has been nurtured by folk at Anglesey Sea Zoo having been found on one of the island’s beaches.
“All the turtles arrived in a weakened state – in many cases we were unsure if they were going to make it overnight,” explained Steve Matchett, group curator for Blue Reef Aquarium.
“All were dehydrated and emaciated. This is due to being too cold for a long period and being unable to feed/function properly. They have all prospered once we got them past the initial stages. We are very grateful to the Navy for stepping in to repatriate these rescued turtles.”
Frankie Hobro, owner of Anglesey Sea Zoo whose team have carried for Tonni – Welsh for wave – since the turtle was washed up next to the aquarium 20 months ago, added:
“In one way there’s going to be this little bit of you swimming off into the Atlantic. In another, this is what we have been aiming for since day one. We’re excited and a little bit of emotional in a happy way. She’s in very, very safe hands as well. It’s wonderful to see how enthusiastic and excited they Navy crew are and how keen they are to look after these turtles, it’s lovely.”
The Blue Reef team showed sailors from HMS Medway how to look after the turtles while aboard the warship.
Although the creatures shouldn’t need feeding their usual fare of marine life such as jellyfish or crustaceans, they and their tanks will need cleaning to prevent a build-up of turtle poo. And they will need to be kept warm – they need an ambient/water temperature above 20° Celsius.
Such was the unusual nature of the job – the RAF carried out a ‘turtle repatriation’ about a decade ago – the two ‘turtle keeper’ posts on board were oversubscribed, with the names of Sub Lieutenant Adam Whitelaw and communications specialist Engineering Technician Ryan Brooks pulled out of a hat.
“The turtles were surprisingly low maintenance,” said Ryan. “All we really had to do was make sure their cages were clean and the turtles themselves were happy, cosy and moist – that they didn’t dry out or suffer sore spots – so that basically meant checking in on them twice a day.”
Adam added: “This is something we’ve never done before, so definitely something to talk about. We had some really good, comprehensive training and the aquarium was always available for consulting if we needed help. We didn’t have any problems, although Gordon, the largest of the turtles, proved a bit of a handful.”