It seems that turtles are either becoming disoriented or are following warm sea routes and turn up in unexpected places.
Although rare, leatherback turtles have been spotted off the coast of Ireland
Although not unheard of, there aren’t regular sightings of leatherback turtles on Irish beaches but according to Fingal County Council a dead turtle was washed up on Portmarnock Beach in Dublin on December 5.
This leatherback turtle was discovered dead on a beach in Dublin
The body was found by walkers on the beach and from a distance the discoverer Niamh Griffin said that when she first saw it, she thought it looked like a pile of tyres but then recognised it as a turtle when she got closer.
Action has been taken to remove the body for burial but prior to that, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group took stranding data from the turtle
The relatively rare sightings which have been made around the Irish coast have tended to be in the Summer months so a December sighting is even more unusual.
The Summer coincides with a proliferation of jellyfish which leatherback turtles enjoy eating and after visiting Irish waters they tend to return to their usual habitat to find a mate and settle down to nest thus keeping the species alive.
The leatherback also known as a trunk turtle is the largest of all of the turtles, can travel up to 10,000 miles in a year and as a reptile is generally only outweighed by alligators and crocodiles.
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