WASSAW ISLAND, Ga. — After years in a Georgia aquarium, a loggerhead sea turtle was released into its natural habitat.
The turtle, named Neptune, was put back into the Atlantic Ocean by the UGA Marine Education Center and Aquarium, WTOC reported Wednesday.
The 3-year-old loggerhead was set free along the beach at Wassaw Island southeast of Savannah on Tuesday, the television station reported.
“You have watched them grow from where they fit in the palm of your hand with plenty of room to spare to barely lift them out of the aquarium,” Lisa Kovalanchik, assistant curator at UGA Aquarium, told WTOC.
Neptune was discovered as a straggler, meaning she hatched but did not leave the nest with her siblings, the television station reported.
“They have almost a zero percent chance of survival,” Kovalanchik said.
Neptune has been a popular attraction at the aquarium, located at Skidaway Island. Aquarium officials believed the time was right to put the turtle back into her natural environment.
“She was definitely moving, and it is good for them to get that blood flowing, but we didn’t want her to get tired out so we helped her down the beach a little bit and made sure she was pointed in the right direction,” Kovalanchik told WTOC.
Neptune was tagged by the Caretta Research Project. When she returns to nest in a few decades, she can be tracked.
Before embarking on her journey, the Caretta Research Project tagged her to keep track of her if she comes back to nest, which likely won’t be for a few decades.
“The other tag, the one we put under her skin, is the one that will last with her for a long time so if she ever comes back to breed,” Joe Pfaller, research director on the Caretta Research Project, told WTOC. “That is the tag we are going to read and that would be really exciting.”
Neptune hesitated slightly as she was released into the ocean, but soon she was swimming away.
“It would have been nice if she kind of popped her head up one last time for a last look,” Kovalanchik told WTOC.