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A LOGGERHEAD TURTLE found washed up on a west coast beach last year has been released back into the Atlantic off Gran Canaria — after taking a flight to the sunny isle.
Leona was discovered, underweight and unresponsive, on a beach in Clare. But after a week of medication, gradually became more active.
She was nursed back to health by Galway Atlantiquarium and, after an appeal by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, flown by Aer Lingus to her new sanctuary home.
Leona had a brief stay at a turtle rehabilitation centre after taking her flight on Tuesday, and was released back into the sea today (to much excitement on the part of onlookers, if not the turtle herself).
In case you’re wondering what that thing’s doing sticking out of her back — it’s a GPS tracker, which will allow turtle enthusiasts to track Leona’s progress over the coming months.
How did Leona get to Clare in the first place, you ask?
Very few Loggerhead turtles have been found in Ireland, the whale and dolphin group’s Simon Berrow told us, earlier in the week. Some get caught in ocean currents, and can end up on beaches along the western seaboard of Europe.
It is believed that many also float across the Atlantic from the Caribbean.
An average day so
@TechBuzz Ireland: no, because we don’t get storms every day
@TechBuzz Ireland: someone once said that Met Eireann may be being a tad over zealous with their weather warnings. Here in Grenoble, we have had rain and winds averaging between 30 and 70 km per hour, with gusts exceeding 80km for the last two days. No weather warnings because, well it’s the weather. So I think they may have a point.
@David Stapleton: I think of you actually look on meteoalarm.eu that most of France is currently under a yellow warning! The warning standards are EU standard as far as I know.
@David Stapleton: status orange by the way!
@joe: yup it’s EU regulation, standard across the EU. When a storm is discovered the country that it first makes landfall with is require to name it.
@David Stapleton: 90 – 110 is higher than 80
@James Padden: really, thanks for that salient point. A wind that exceeds 80 is also higher than 80 but that wasn’t the point I was making. Also for those other posts about a status orange warning in France, point taken. However it still doesn’t change the fact that it is not plastered all over the newspapers here. Though, on reflection, the issue may be with the friggin’ newspapers sensationalising everything.
@David Stapleton: good point. They gave to get clicks somehow, pretty low bar for what constitutes news these days!
@TechBuzz Ireland: the alarmist approach is from rte, not meteirann.
Yippie bring it on lest we can enjoy a good nights sleep again that weather we had was too warm not used to it and we ll b able to enjoy a pint down d local without the sweat pouring out of us
@liam ward60: yeah, because being able to have a pint in comfort is the most important thing. :/ sheesh
@liam ward60: Sounds like you may have a problem with your sweat glands. Or your local pub needs air conditioning. One or the other.
Is there ever any good bit of news to start off the day? Anyone? Nah?
@Ó Donnabháin Ccian: Well, the missus said that she was going away for a few day’s. Does that count at all?
@Patabake Kennedy:
Not if she’s going away for a few days with the new boyfriend.
@Ó Donnabháin Ccian: ofc theres good news…you’re alive and breathing..isnt that some great news?
@Celia Murphy: You’re spot on!
@Ó Donnabháin Ccian: i have good news, i am in Portugal
@Ó Donnabháin Ccian: my good news is, i am in Portugal
Storm Hannah sounds rather benign, how about Storm Ghengis Khan.
More Met Eireann scaremongering. The PC age tries to have us afraid of rain these days.
@Mike Conway: It’s the information age and its just information, don’t be afraid of it.
@Mike Conway: Asking people to be careful is scaremongering? To what end?
@Mike Conway: funny thing is that there are people who have been repeatedly flooded out who are, in fact, afraid of rain. And if some of the predictions are to be believed, many more will be in future, especially those around the coasts who will have to deal with elevated sea levels.
Was the name Hannah not used already in the last few years?
Hopefully they won’t take the roads in
Wet Eireann
East Coast completely fine. Business as usual for the hardy Wesht
..
I press the play button on the pic but nothing happens :-(
@Chewey Bacca: they do it that way to be in sync with the actual weather warnings…
Y
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