Molly, cared for in Kerry for 22 years, swam off the Algarve coast

A loggerhead named Molly, looked after in County Kerry since 2004, went back into the Atlantic on October 28. The Journal reported that she was lowered from a Portuguese navy ship about 12 miles off Portimão and swam off without hesitating.

Kevin Flannery, director of Dingle Oceanworld, had cared for her for two decades. She washed up on the Maharees peninsula as a cold-stunned adolescent of about 40 pounds, with both front flippers badly damaged. For years the staff believed she could only swim in circles and would not survive at sea. Flannery said that changed as she grew strong. At release she weighed about 257 pounds. He told The Journal she grew agitated once the ship left port and the smell of salt water reached her, then left as soon as she was in the sea.

Getting a turtle that heavy out of Ireland took permits and a flight. TAP Air Cargo carried her in April, in a padded box, to Zoomarine's turtle hospital in the Algarve. Staff there spent about five months checking that she could find food and dive. A satellite tag was fitted. Flannery said he hoped it would start sending locations within a few days, and that DNA work by David Duffy, of a Florida university, points to the Gulf of Mexico as her origin. The tag had not yet reported when the story was published. The release is the return to the water, not a map of where she goes next.