Critically-endangered Kemp’s ridley turtles were found in Cumbria and Merseyside, 5,000 miles from their home
One of two Kemp’s ridley turtles found in Cumbria and Merseyside, 5,000 miles from their home in the Gulf of Mexico. Photo: Wildlife Trust
By Telegraph reporter
12:37AM GMT 24 Dec 2014
Two rare sea turtles have washed ashore on beaches in the North West, some 5,000 miles from their home in the Gulf of Mexico.
The critically-endangered Kemp’s ridley turtles were found in Cumbria and Merseyside, and it is feared that more could yet appear.
Rod Penrose, a Marine mammal expert, said that they could have been “cold-stunned” by a drop in ocean temperatures in the US, which would leave them unable to feed or swim against strong currents.
Rob Archer, who was walking with his girlfriend on Saturday when he found one of the turtles on Sefton Beach, near Formby, told the Liverpool Echo: “At first I thought it was a crab.
“It seemed in a stupor as if there wasn’t much life left in it.
“My first thought was to put it back in the sea so I walked out into some deeper water and it swam away.”
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