A stranded loggerhead turtle has been rescued in Cumbria.
The sea creature was first thought to be dead after it was found looking lifeless by dog walkers on a Walney Island beach.
But after British Divers Marine Life Rescue were called out to collect the body for a post-mortem – they quickly realised the sea turtle was alive.
Sarah Neill, Cumbrian marine biologist and regional coordinator for the rescue team, organised the retrieval effort.
She said: “We were called out first thing in the morning on Sunday. It had initially been reported to us as dead, so originally we thought we were recovering its body for our Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme.
“But it turned out it was still alive, just cold-stunned. When they’re cold-stunned they go really lethargic and shut down and sometimes they appear to be dead, so it’s important to check for vital signs.”
Paul Knight, from Barrow, was first to report the loggerhead after finding it while out walking with his partner. The couple also stayed to help with the rescue.
He said: “We were walking the dog as we do every Sunday when we spotted it. It was showing no signs of life but we could see it had a tracker.
“We had no idea what to do so we gave it a quick google and discovered ‘The Turtle Code’ and the phone number for the Marine Conservation Society.
“We left them a message and carried on our walk as we didn’t think there was anything else we could do.
“The Marine Conservation Society then rang us back and said they were sending someone out but could we go back as there is a possibility it was cold-stunned, and if you gently stroke its eye it will react if it’s still alive.”
Paul said they then went back to the loggerhead and his partner stroked its eye – to which the animal responded.
He added: “We contacted the Marine Conservation Society again and said we’d stay with it until the British Divers Marine Life Rescue medic arrived. Once he arrived I said I would help him retrieve the animal from the beach as there is no way to get a vehicle down there.
“The two of us were then able to get the turtle onto a tarp and started to carry it back down the beach. It then found some life and started to try and crawl out and we had to put it down and secure it better in the tarp.
“It was very heavy and we later found out it was 50 kilos, it eventually took four of us to get it off the beach with two more walkers joining in the effort.
“It was such a magnificent animal and a real pleasure to be involved with, we hope it recovers well and can be taken back to its home soon.”
Sarah added that it is likely the animal became stranded in Cumbria’s cold waters due to unusual weather like storms blowing it off course.
She said: “The last sea turtle stranding we had in Cumbria was around 10 years ago and it was a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle that also washed up on Walney Island, which was a lot smaller than this loggerhead.
“The loggerhead was very big, bigger than I expected it to be and it weighed around 50 kilos. We normally see them anywhere from Brazil up to Canada.
“The ones that come over from the East Coast of the USA can get swept across on the Gulf Stream and we do also get some nesting in the Mediterranean. With climate change they have also been moving slightly more north.
“But they never come here, they stop feeding in temperatures below 20 degrees and even in the summer we don’t have warm enough waters to sustain a loggerhead sea turtle.”
Once the rescue team established the sea turtle was alive they quickly began to organise where it could be taken for recovery.
Sarah said: “We got in touch with Rod Penrose who runs Marine Environmental Monitoring and is a sea turtle expert in the UK and he helped us arrange to take it to Blackpool Sea Life Centre.
“Initially he asked if we could house it here in Cumbria at my work in the rescue, but it was so huge I didn’t think we’d have anything big enough to put it in.
“So we went to Blackpool and I monitored it in the back of the van. The most important thing when a sea turtle is cold-stunned is not warming it up too quickly as it leads to a rapid spread of infection.
“You have to keep them at their core body temperature and I had to find out the temperature of Barrow’s sea and start off with that water temperature before it can be slowly warmed up by two degrees Celsius until it reaches the 25 degree temperature it normally lives in.”
When loggerhead turtle’s enter cold UK waters they can quickly become ill – but Sarah said other sea turtle’s in the same position have recovered well in the past.
She added: “There have been ones that have made a recovery and we’ve had to do repatriation and fly them back home, so recovery is perfectly possible.
“But at this stage we have no idea what the outcome might be, the hope is that it is able to be warmed well and Blackpool do have a good vet. Once it is warmed and stabilised it will then need to start feeding again.
“Obviously it’s always really sad to rescue an animal in that state but it is also still exciting to be part of it and you always hope for a great outcome. Even if it’s a sad outcome, at least we’ve done everything we can to give it the best chance.”
A satellite tracker was also found carefully attached to the loggerhead’s shell and Sarah said it was microchipped.
Teams at Marine Environmental Monitoring are hoping to be able to scan the sea turtle’s microchip and match it to the sea turtle database in an effort to find out where it has come from.
Sea turtle’s are often tagged for post-release monitoring or research purposes. Tagging is harmless and allows researchers to monitor how rehabilitated sea turtle’s manage in the wild.
Sarah added that anyone who finds a hard-shelled sea turtle on a beach in Cumbria should always remember to never return them to the sea as they will re-strand or die and instead make sure to call for help.
Stranded sea animals can be reported to the British Divers Marine Life Rescue’s 24 hour hotline on 01825 765546.
