THE epic voyage of Sammy the turtle is making waves around the world after she swam from Kerry to Senegal, revealing age-old secrets of the endangered species for the first time.

More than 1.3m people have so far logged onto a website tracking the movements of Sammy, a leatherback turtle that left Dingle last August with a satellite tag attached to her back. The tag, which has a three-year battery, tells scientists where the reptile is, when she dives and to what depths, and even the temperature of the waters she encounters.

The 65st female, which is 7ft long and 6ft wide, was found stuck in lobster pots and ropes by Padraig Frank O’Sullivan at Cuas in Ballydavid, Co Kerry last August. She was tagged and released the following day by the team at Oceanworld Aquarium in Dingle, the first time a European-based turtle has been tracked. Since then Sammy has stunned scientists by swimming almost 3,000 miles to Senegal via the Canaries and Cape Verde. It is hoped that she will eventually divulge mating secrets dating back millions of years that are a still a mystery to experts.

Kevin Flannery, founder of Dingle’s Oceanworld Aquarium, said they have been stunned by the huge online following Sammy has attracted on Turtle.ie. “It’s the first time a turtle has ever been tracked from Europe and there is huge interest from around the world,” he said. “We are amazed she has headed for Africa and that she recorded a dive of 1,500ft recently.

“These turtles are a much endangered species and their future is in the hands of mankind. These great reptiles have been coming here for millions of years but this is the first time we know where they go to.

“There are about 100 sightings of them in Ireland every year and they are spotted up as far as Iceland. They basically follow their food, which is jellyfish. We thought she would head to Venezuela or America to breed. Hopefully we will be able to find out exactly where she will breed. We will know when she goes up on a beach.”

The Irish Sea Leatherback Turtle Project, which is a collaboration between the University of Wales in Swansea and University College Cork, was set up in 2003 to address gaps in scientific knowledge. Once the turtles’ exact routes are known, it is expected that scientists will ask that fishing passageways be left open for them and fishing banned near beaches where they land to breed, so that the reptiles don’t get caught up in nets.

“They are endangered through pollution, overfishing and plastics in the ocean and their demise could be very near,” said Flannery. “They feed on jellyfish and another danger is that they cannot distinguish their food from plastic. If they ingest plastic they can die.”

Sammy’s journey is worthy of St Brendan the navigator, the 6th-century Irish monk who also set sail from Cuas and is sometimes credited with discovering America.

After leaving Dingle, the turtle headed southwest for the Bay of Biscay, covering about 25 miles a day. Within weeks she did a U-turn, prompting speculation that Sammy was headed back to Ireland. Instead it appears she doubled back for a patch of food, and then continued a zig-zag journey south.

The turtle hung around the northwest coast of Spain for more than a week, suggesting she had found another jellyfish hotspot. But then there were no signals from the satellite for 20 days, prompting numerous anxious calls from the public to Flannery, many of them from children who feared the worst.

When the signals resumed, the turtle was found to have continued south, past the Canaries, and was 125 miles off the coast of Mauritania. Scientists now think bad weather blocked the satellite’s signals.

Female leatherbacks only lay eggs every two to three years, and scientists have no idea on which nesting beach Sammy was born and to which she will return to lay her eggs. Leatherbacks, one of only seven species of marine turtles found in oceans, like the open seas and generally only approach land during the nesting season.

The largest specimen ever recorded was washed up in North Wales in 1989, measuring more than 9ft and weighing 140st. Knowledge of the elusive species remains limited to such strandings, and anecdotal sightings along the coast.

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