Turtle Swept 4,000 Miles Away Toward the UK Atlantic Coast Returns to Texas Waters

A rare sea turtle was swept 4,000 miles away toward the U.K. Atlantic coast in November 2021. Now, Tally, a Kemp's ridley sea turtle, is returning to Texas waters.

The sea turtle was found stranded and almost dead in Northern Wales when it was discovered in Talacre Beach almost two years ago, as announced by U.S. wildlife authorities.

Tally the Turtle

(Photo : Photo by Randall Ruiz on Unsplash)

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), during a press release last week, announced that "Tally" the Kemp's ridley sea turtle is set to come back to Texas waters from Wales through air transport while acknowledging the efforts of international partners and volunteers. Upon returning to the country, the FWS will release Tally from Galveston into the Gulf of Mexico in September.

The planned release of Tally is to ensure it will have another chance in life in a marine ecosystem where it is native. According to FWS Texas Sea Turtle Coordinator, Mary Kay Skoruppa, Tally is ready to come home thanks to the immediate response of a group of international partners and volunteers, as mentioned before.

After washing in the north coast of Wales, a dog walker spotted Tally and was reported as "presumed dead" to the British Diver's Marine Life Rescue, according to the FWS.

Until now, it is still unclear if whether the transatlantic journey of Tally was intentional or strong waves drove it towards the U.K. Atlantic coast.

A similar incident occurred earlier this year. In January, a seal pup got lost far away from the sea in Walton-le-Dale, a village in Lancanshire, England. In 2021, a grey whale named "Wally" was lost in the Mediterranean Sea, approximately 5,600 miles away from the coast of Alaska, its native habitat in North America.

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Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle

Just like Tally the turtle, other members of the species Kemp's ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) were once abundant in the Gulf of Mexico filled with tens of thousands of female turtles on the coast of Rancho Nuevo, Mexico, according to the NOAA Fisheries.

However, their population crashed by the middle of the 20^th century. In modern times, the largest threat to L. kempii, also called the Atlantic ridley sea turtle, are bycatch using commercial and recreational fishing gear. Other studies have also shown that marine plastic pollution also endangers not only turtles but also other marine life.

The NOAA Fisheries, along with its partners, are engaged in the protection and conservation of the Kemp's ridley sea turtle.

Kemp's ridley sea turtle is named after a fisherman named Richard M. Kemp from Key West, Florida. Kemp was the first one to submit about the species for identification in 1906. Aside from the Gulf of Mexico, the rare sea turtle can also be found in the Atlantic Ocean, stretching as far as Nova Scotia in the north and even in the eastern part of the North Atlantic, the U.S. government agency says.