Dead Sea Turtle on Worthing Beach

I have just received a message form Graham at the Seafront Office at Worthing in West Sussex with a report of a dead marine turtle at splash point.

When they arrived on the scene they were able to tell that the turtle was dead and measured 1 and a half meters in length. The turtle was located the turtle due south of Coast Café.

Looking at the number of scales on the shell I was say this is a loggerhead turtle, Graham also suggested this species.

Tropical Sea turtles do turn up around our shore from time to time and because of the colder water (and reptiles being cold blooded) they become sluggish and don't feed and then if not rescued they usually die.

The cause of death is not know at present, the underside looked concave so it may have starved or it could have ingested plastic, but we will have to wait for the post mortem. I will update if more information is available.