A tiny turtle found washed up on the freezing shores of North Wales is now luxuriating in the balmy waters of the Azores. The rare turtle was close to death when discovered on Anglesey but is now “living the best life” in the deep sea thanks to help from the Royal Navy. Two dogs sniffed out “Tonni”, a young Loggerhead sea turtle, on the Menai Strait on January 5, 2023.
Instead of becoming a snack for gulls, he was whisked to Anglesey Sea Zoo a quarter of a mile away for urgent attention. At the time it was comatose, dehydrated and malnourished – zoo staff said it was a “miracle” the turtle had survived at all. Measuring 25cm long and 1kg in weight, the turtle was too small to discern a gender and so was named Tonni, from “tonnau”, the Welsh word for “wave”.
READ MORE: Latest TikTok 'craze' sweeping Gwynedd seaside town 'unacceptable' police say READ MORE: Body found in search for Wrexham man Anthony Roberts After 20 months of care at the zoo, and now more than eight times heavier, Tonni was last week transported to Plymouth and transferred to HMS Medway, a Royal Navy patrol boat. After a four-day voyage, closely monitored by two Royal Navy staff, the turtle was released back into the wild in the mid-Atlantic ocean. Joining Tonni on the trip were four other Loggerhead turtles from the Blue Reef Aquarium, Newquay, that had washed up in southern England.
Following their release, HMS Medway messaged: “You will be pleased to know we successfully released th.