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The small Kemp's ridley (2.2 kg), named Johnny by the Dutch caregivers, was in poor condition and was thought to be dead when it arrived at Rotterdam Zoo. The turtle's eyes were closed and its whole body was covered with a sandy mucous material. After realizing the turtle was alive, caregivers slowly increased Johnny's body temperature and induced the turtle to accept food. Approximately one week later, the turtle was feeding on dead herrings (Clupea harengus and Sprattus sprattus), shrimp (Pandalus borealis), and squid (Loligo opalescens). After 6 to 8 weeks, Johnny was moved to a public area within the zoo, where the turtle became active, started feeding more, and increased in weight.

The Rotterdam Zoo arranged to transfer the turtle to Portugal to continue its rehabilitation in a warmer climate. Johnny arrived in Lisbon on 22 July 2009, was received by a team from Oceanário de Lisboa, and was transported the following day to Zoomarine in Albufeira, on Portugal's southern coast. Once there, the turtle's name was expanded to associate Johnny with Portugal's famous voyager: Johnny Vasco da Gama (JV). Upon arrival at Zoomarine, JV was 31.2 cm SCL and 4.7 kg. While at Zoomarine, the turtle was fed a diet comprising four fish species (Micromesistius poutassou, Clupea harengus, Scomber scombrus, and Trachurus trachurus); this diet was supplemented with clam (Meretrix lyrata), shrimp (Penaeus indicus), and live crab (Carcinus maenas).

Just over a year later, JV was deemed rehabilitated, and in September 2010 the Zoomarine team contacted colleagues in the United States about releasing the turtle in the Western North Atlantic. Considering that JV had reached a size of 45.7 cm SCL and 17.3 kg by 31 July 2010 and wild turtles of that size forage primarily in neritic habitats, it was decided that JV should be released into a neritic environment. However, the oil well responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill had just been capped, and the health of the Gulf of Mexico, a major foraging area for Kemp's ridleys, was in question. With winter on the horizon, and lacking CITES permits and transportation arrangements, the decision was made to overwinter JV at Zoomarine. Meanwhile, work commenced to secure the necessary permits, and arrangements were made with TAP Air Portugal to transport JV to the United States. On 28 November 2011, JV was transported from Albufeira to Lisbon and loaded into a special kennel secured to the airplane's main cabin floor, where a row of seats had been removed for this purpose. Accompanied by two Zoomarine caregivers, a cabin full of regular passengers, and a small media crew from TAP to document the trip, JV was flown to Miami, Florida in the USA. The turtle was transferred to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, cleared for entry by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inspector, and transported to the Loggerhead MarineLife Center in Juno Beach to rest overnight. The following morning, JV was driven across Florida to the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, where it was processed for admission to the facility.

JV was found to have some abnormal blood results (high LDH/ AST, CK, and low iron; weight in excess of that deemed to be healthy for a turtle of that size). The turtle was treated with injectable iron and its diet was slightly restricted. After the iron levels began to increase, JV was released on North Lido Beach, Florida (27.31510 °N x 82.58159 °W) on 27 December 2011 with inconel tags in both front flippers (UUN896, UUK794) and a 134 kHz PIT tag in the left front flipper (900118001185422), in addition to the Rotterdam Zoo's original PIT tag in the inguinal area of the left femur (967000001074261). At release, JV measured 54.5 cm SCL and weighed 31 kg. A testosterone assay indicated that the turtle likely was a female (191.7 pg/ml, Jeffrey Schwenter, pers. comm.).

Figure 1. Movements of a Kemp’s ridley repatriated from the Eastern North Atlantic and released into the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The track is based on GPS locations transmitted by the Wildlife Computers SPLASH10-F Fastloc3 prototype Argos satellite tag. GPS data were extracted using Wildlife Computers WC-DAP software, ver. 3.0 (<http://www.wildlifecomputers.com/downloads.aspx>).

Tracking a rehabilitated animal allows for a comparison of the individual's behavior to that of other wild-captured animals to determine whether the newly released animal is behaving similarly to its conspecifics. Wildlife Computers (Redmond, VA) donated a SPLASH10-F Fastloc3 prototype Argos satellite tag, which was attached to JV's carapace immediately before release following the methods of Seney et al. (2010). Summary information of the transmitted data was generated using the Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool (Coyne & Godley 2005). JV exhibited directed movement westward in the shallow waters over the continental shelf (Fig. 1). The last transmission was on 10 May 2012 when JV was just west of Trinity Shoal, off western Louisiana (29.27241°N x 92.15749 °W). In 135 days, JV had traveled 1,060 km and traversed more than half the Gulf of Mexico. JV finally reached an area documented as prime foraging grounds for the species (Seney & Landry 2011; Shaver & Rubio 2008). JV traveled through waters ≤10m deep for 62% of the time and ≤25 m deep for 93% of the time. Sea surface temperatures (SST) ranged between 14 °C and 26 °C. SST in the areas used by JV were <20 °C until early March after which all SST were above 20 °C, with the highest temperatures recorded at the end of the deployment. Thus, JV appeared to behave as its conspecifics did after being released into the Gulf of Mexico. This unique study (n = 1) implies that stranded turtles may be repatriated successfully if they are returned to habitats appropriate for their size. Although JV had not previously frequented any neritic foraging ground in the Gulf of Mexico, upon release the turtle migrated to a known foraging ground for juvenile and adult Kemp’s ridleys. Sea turtles are believed to navigate by sensing magnetic fields and to map locations relative to their natal beaches or foraging grounds (Lohmann et al. 2007). JV’s activities after release suggest that repatriated turtles should be able to re-integrate into wild populations.

If anyone should encounter JV alive, we request that measurements are taken, the turtle's condition noted, and a report containing the information be filed with the Cooperative Marine Turtle Tagging Program (<http://accstr.ufl.edu/resources/tagging-program-cmttp/>). Should JV be found dead, we request that he is salvaged, frozen with subsequent notification to the stranding network coordinator for the area.

Acknowledgements: We greatly appreciate the assistance of the following people and organizations: Nuria Baylina (Oceanário de Lisboa) for facilitating JV's transfer to Zoomarine; José Luis Anjos and Roberto Piccoli (Transportes Aéreos Portugueses) for facilitating JV's transportation on their airline and arranging for access to JV on the airport tarmac; TAP for providing the transportation of JV and Zoomarine staff; Élio A. Vicente (Zoomarine) for facilitation of the repatriation and for accompanying JV to the US; staff of the Rotterdam Zoo, Zoomarine, and Mote Marine Lab for JV's care; Jeffrey Schwenter (College of Charleston) for the testosterone assay; Melinda Holland (Wildlife Computers) for donating the satellite tag; Andy Stamper (Mote Marine Laboratory) for veterinary care; Lt. Col. Karn L. Carlson (US Air Force and US Embassy, Lisbon) and Lt. Col. João Pereira (Portugal Air Force) for standby transportation arrangements. We also thank Alex Chester and two anonymous reviewers for suggestions that improved the manuscript.

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