A sea turtle that washed up in Guernsey in 2023 suffering from hypothermia is now nearly ready to be returned to the wild.
After receiving initial treatment on Guernsey, the loggerhead – named Barnacle Bill because of the goose barnacles attached to her shell – was transferred to SEA LIFE, Brighton in 2024 to finish her recovery.
"Rehabilitation treatment is not necessarily just as simple as 'let's get them warm enough and back they go',” says Joe Williams, Curator at SEA LIFE, Brighton. Williams is the driving force behind the creation of the UK’s first purpose-built facility to rehabilitate and repatriate sea turtles like Bill.
In Guernsey, “they were struggling with getting the paperwork sorted to be able to repatriate her to get her back out to the wild,” he says.
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During her time in the facility, Bill has had X-rays, blood tests and a special diet to help her put on weight. She now weighs 5.3kg (at her latest weigh in) compared to 2.08kg when she arrived.
At first, Williams was worried about an injury on her head that indicated she might have been hit by something and have neurological damage. “Thankfully the X-rays are all good,” he says.
As well as medical treatment, Bill’s recovery has involved enrichment activities to remind her how to behave in the wild. “When [a turtle has] been in an environment in human care for a while, they can start to forget things,” says Williams. “When she goes back out to the wild, she's got to remember how to hunt again for her food.”
As well as encouraging her to forage, the facility can get her used to the changing conditions of the wild. They can change the water levels, simulate clouds and there’s even a wave machine so she can experience choppy waters. "We can even replicate storms in terms of making lightning,” says Williams.
Human interaction has been strictly limited throughout so she doesn’t get too accustomed to people.
Only one species of turtle – the leatherback – is found in UK waters. “Everything else is a tropical species, so they shouldn’t be here. They're not adapted to cope with our water temperature,” says Williams. When they turn up in the UK, “they need help to get them back to where they should be.”
When Bill was found in Guernsey, the small turtle was cold stunned. Her carapace (shell) was covered in goose barnacles – which the rehab team carefully prized off – which aren’t found in tropical waters. The fact that they managed to accumulate on her shell “suggests she may have been confused for a while before she ended up in in Guernsey,” says Williams.
Often, when sea turtles have hypothermia like this, they can be so lifeless that people assume they’re dead. If you find a sea turtle, says Williams, call the Turtle UK Strandings Network straight away (01239 683033). Don’t try to put the turtle back in the water or heat it up. Doing either of those things “would be a death sentence for that turtle.”
Strandings seem to have increased in recent years as a result of climate change. In 2024, 35 sea turtles washed up on UK shores, compared to 27 in 2023 and 12 in 2022.
Although not all stranded turtles survive, Williams’ team knows what to do – or not do – to try to get them back on track and returned to the wild. This includes carefully and gradually raising their temperature as well as knowing what, when and how much to feed them. “When they are so cold, they can’t metabolise their food so you can't offer them food for a certain period of time,” he says.
Now, Barnacle Bill is nearly ready to continue her journey back to the wild. She will soon be taken to warmer waters and released. But the facility will remain ready for the next patient who washes up on a UK beach and needs help recovering.
Main image: Barnacle Bill, a young loggerhead sea turtle at the UK’s first ever turtle rehabilitation and repatriation centre in Brighton/Credit: Anthony Devlin
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