A turtle found washed up on a south Wales beach this week was one of the rarest marine turtles in the world, according to an expert.
A dead juvenile Kemp's Ridley turtle washed up on Marros Sands in Carmarthenshire on Wednesday. The following day a live juvenile loggerhead came ashore on a beach in north Wales. Local expert, Rod Penrose, said the turtles may appear dead on first inspection but "could still be alive as they become cold-stunned in UK waters".
Mr Penrose, from Cardigan, is the British and Irish 'TURTLE' database manager for Marine Environmental Monitoring. He warned people to keep their eyes peeled as they visit beaches along the Welsh coast in coming days and weeks. He said: "The vast majority of the hard-shell species we get stranded on the UK coast are juvenile (dinner plate size) loggerheads or adult loggerheads that are compromised in some way (loss of flipper).
