The survival of a tiny loggerhead turtle in freezing temperatures thousands of miles from home is being described as "an absolute miracle".
The 150mm turtle was found beached on the Belmullet Peninsula in Co Mayo by a local man ten days ago.
Cormac de Rosta and his two daughters were out walking when the tiny turtle - the size of a dinner plate - was spotted upside down.
The turtle has been named Cróga - the Irish for 'brave' - and is being looked after by staff at Dingle Oceanworld.
Director Kevin Flannery said it is very rare for such a small turtle to be found alive after crossing the Atlantic from Florida.
"How it survived is beyond my understanding," he said.
"Usually, birds would have picked them off or a shark or something would have eaten it, or the cold shock from the water would have killed it," he said.
"Being so tiny, it is an absolute miracle it survived."
Dingle Oceanworld has extensive experience dealing with lost turtles and returning them home to warmer waters.
In recent years the Irish Naval Services heading to the Mediterranean on humanitarian missions have returned a number of rescued turtles to the warmer waters of the Canaries on their behalf.
On one occasion a 4kg loggerhead turtle which washed ashore in Co Galway during Storm Lorenzo in 2019 was flown to the Canaries from Cork Airport after returning to good health in the care of the staff at Dingle Oceanworld.
Mr Flannery said loggerhead turtles hatch in the Gulf of Mexico and after a few years in the Sargasso Sea off Miami, they drift towards the Canaries.
But sometimes storms from the Caribbean can wash them too far north into colder waters and they can wash ashore on the west coast of Ireland.
"If the reptiles are found in time," he said "their temperature is brought back up extremely slowly, we give them a saline solution and get them back feeding".
"Crogá is doing well," he added "and has already put on 255 grams".
The loggerhead will remain in the care of the aquarium for the next couple of months before arrangements will be made to release into the warmer waters of the Canaries.
