GALVESTON, Texas — A remarkable story of international collaboration and conservation involving a wayward sea turtle ended happily in Galveston on Monday. The juvenile Kemp's ridley sea turtle returned to her home waters in the Gulf of Mexico after she was found thousands of miles away over a year ago.
A group of commercial fishermen found Boeier trapped in their nets off the southwestern coast of the Netherlands in October 2023. They named the turtle after the boat that found her and she was taken to the Rotterdam Zoo for medical treatment.
They oversaw her rehabilitation while staff from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service worked with an international group that aids endangered animals to get her back home.
In late October, Boeier was flown across the Atlantic and taken to the Houston Zoo to be checked out.
Experts with the Texas A&M University at Galveston’s Gulf Center for Sea Turtle Research attached a tracking device to Boeire to monitor her future movements and then she was ready to return to her native waters.
Rotterdam Zoo curator Mark de Boer was among the supporters lining Stewart Beach to cheer for Boeire when she was released.
“We are so happy that Boeier was rescued, rehabilitated and deemed healthy enough to release so that she can rejoin the reproductive population and potentially contribute to the recovery of the species,” Mary Kay Skoruppa with USFWS said. the Service’s Sea Turtle Coordinator for Texas.
Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are the smallest and one of the most endangered species of sea turtles in the world. Primarily found in the Gulf of Mexico and coastal waters of the Atlantic along eastern North America, the juvenile turtles are occasionally carried across the Atlantic by the powerful Gulf stream.
“We are starting to see more juvenile Kemp’s ridleys off the East Coast, and due to climate change the warmer water is pulling them into the Atlantic,” Fish and Wildlife Biologist Cynthia Rubio explained.
In fact, Boeier wasn't the only sea turtle found stranded in European waters last year. Around the same time as Boeier, the Rotterdam Zoo took in seven cold-stunned loggerhead sea turtles and one other Kemp’s ridley named Blof who had been found on Dutch beaches.
The Anglesey Sea Zoo in North Wales has also taken in two stranded Kemp’s ridleys, including one named “Tally” that was released by partners from Galveston into the Gulf of Mexico last year.
And you may remember Tally, another Kemp's ridley sea turtle that was stranded in North Wales, nursed back to health and released in Galveston last year.
Anyone who encounters a sick, injured, stranded, or deceased sea turtle should report it immediately to a local stranding network. These organizations have trained professionals who can respond promptly and take appropriate action to help the animal.