Six Rare Turtles Returned To Original Habitat Thanks To Royal Navy

The crew of HMS Medway released the vulnerable creatures off the Azores as the patrol ship headed towards the Caribbean. ROYAL NAVY VIA SWNS.

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Six rare turtles have been returned to their original Atlantic habitat thanks to the Royal Navy.

It has linked up with two marine life organizations 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.

The crew of HMS Medway released the vulnerable creatures off the Azores as the patrol ship headed towards the Caribbean.

Strong winds and Atlantic currents swept the juvenile turtles from the Caribbean or Eastern Seaboard of the USA.

Once in the cold waters around the 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.

Medway sailed from Plymouth last week to relieve her sister ship, HMS Trent. She will support international counter-drug smuggling operations across the Americas and assist island communities should they be ravaged by storms during hurricane season.

Alongside her regular cargo of food supplies, machinery spare parts, and 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.