Rescued turtle set for 'emotional' return to wild

Barnacle Bill is set to be released into the wild almost three years after her rescue

A loggerhead sea turtle is set to return to the wild near the Azores after rescuers found her covered in barnacles following a storm in 2023.

Barnacle Bill washed ashore in Guernsey and was initially cared for by the Guernsey Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA).

In 2024, she was transferred to the sea turtle rehabilitation and repatriation centre at Sea Life Brighton, which has now arranged her release.

Sea Life Brighton curator Joe Williams said: "Getting to put her in the water - going back off to hopefully live a long, healthy life - I'm sure will be emotional."

GSPCA manager Steve Byrne said: "For Bill to get back to warm waters is a delight for us."

The GSPCA said Barnacle Bill was only the second loggerhead turtle it had seen in Guernsey

Loggerhead turtles are a vulnerable species, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), with many of their nesting beaches under threat from tourism development.

Hundreds of thousands are also accidentally caught in shrimp trawl nets, on longline hooks and in fishing gillnets each year, the WWF adds.

Mr Williams said turtles ended up in UK waters due to "human-led activities" such as marine pollution or climate change.

However, waters around the British Isles are "far too cold for them, even in summertime", he added.

Barnacle Bill weighed less than 1kg when she was brought to the GSPCA following Storm Ciarán, the organisation said, but the Sussex aquarium said she now weighed more than 13kg.

The turtle moved to Brighton after the GSPCA said difficulties with export paperwork prevented it from transporting the turtle for release.

Mr Williams said this was the centre's first release since it opened in Brighton.

Barnacle Bill was moved to Sea Life Brighton in 2024

The curator said the aquarium had simulated waves and rain for Barnacle Bill, as well as limiting her human contact and hiding food for her to hunt for.

"Because she's going back out into the wild, we don't want to see us as friends," he said.

Mr Williams warned that if people found turtles stranded on beaches, it would be "almost a death sentence for that turtle" to return them to the sea, and advised contacting a rescue team instead.