Meg, a black Labrador, found in December 2023 a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle dazed by the cold on a beach in Rhosneigr, on the Welsh island of Anglesey. She was very young and still alive.
In the aquarium that took her in they gave her the name Rhossi after the town; she was then too young to know whether she was male or female. Nearly three years later, on August 10, 2026, she flew some 8,000 kilometers to Houston, Texas, to return to the Gulf of Mexico, from which her species originates, but the veterinarians there spotted signs of pneumonia and the release had to be postponed.
That aquarium is Anglesey Sea Zoo, whose owner and director is Frankie Hobro.
A dog found her among the seaweed at Rhosneigr
Anglesey Sea Zoo, in Brynsiencyn, is a cold-water native-species aquarium that had its first experience with a stranded sea turtle in 2016. Rhossi was the fourth one it rescued, according to its website.
According to the aquarium, a turtle in cold shock requires a highly specific and intensive treatment, with constant, hour-by-hour attention during the first weeks.
In Spain, more than 100 municipalities run campaigns to explain what to do if you encounter a sea turtle on the beach.
The cold of the North Atlantic left her paralyzed
Rhossi arrived in Wales in a state that biologists call cold-stunned. According to NOAA, the U.S. oceanic agency, this usually occurs when water falls below about 10°C: the turtles become lethargic, stop swimming and float until the wind or the tide carries them ashore.
In the United States it happens in some winters as well, as seen in the cold-stun rescues of hawksbill turtles in December 2025.
Almost three years between healing and paperwork
On its website, the aquarium later stated that Rhossi had overcome the initial recovery phase and that everything pointed to “a full recovery and release.”
The aquarium notes on its site that in January 2025 an executive order from Donald Trump withdrew funding from many conservation projects, and that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which helped them with Tally, another juvenile lorikeet rescued in 2021, “did not have sufficient funding or staff to assist us for a while.”
Meanwhile Rhossi fattened up. She went from about 900 grams to around 21 kilograms, according to the Houston Zoo.
A helicopter and a cargo plane to Houston
The first leg was flown by helicopter, from Anglesey to Denham Aerodrome in Buckinghamshire. It was piloted by Darren Briggs, CEO of the Welsh company Ascona Group, with Gareth Abbott as co-pilot. According to the company, the hour-and-a-half flight saved about seven hours of road travel inside a temperature-controlled crate.
“When I first heard Rhossi’s story, I knew I wanted to help,” Briggs said in a company statement. “Being able to play even a small part in helping Rhossi get home is a genuine privilege.”
From Denham they drove to Heathrow and then, on a British Airways cargo flight, to Houston. Hobro traveled with her on that plane, according to Ascona Group.
Upon arrival, on August 10, she was checked at the airport and taken to a deep-water tank at the Houston Zoo to acclimate, according to the Houston Zoo.
The pneumonia suspicion delays the return to the gulf
The medical examination was led by Joe Flanagan, a renowned senior veterinarian who briefly came out of retirement to handle the case, according to the zoo.
They checked the function of the organs, the eyes, the mouth, the shell and the flippers, and performed X-rays and a CT scan of the lungs. She seemed healthy, active and vigorous, but the images raised suspicion of a persistent pneumonia.
The team would continue monitoring and treating her “to ensure the best possible chance of a successful return to the wild,” the zoo wrote on August 14. The initial plan, according to Ascona Group, was to release her on August 18 near Padre Island National Seashore on the southern coast of Texas.
By the end of August, Anglesey Sea Zoo announced on LinkedIn that Rhossi had been moved to a turtle rescue center in Galveston, with the same staff, and that she would stay there “until she is ready for release.” To release her they would transport her down the coast to Padre Island, “almost certainly” the place where she was born.
The smallest sea turtle in the world
The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) is the smallest of the seven species of sea turtles. According to NOAA, 95% of its nests worldwide are in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, hence the emphasis of each year’s sea turtle conservation programs in Mexico.
In 1985 there were only 702 nests, with fewer than 250 females, and NOAA notes that bycatch remains its greatest threat.
What remains to be confirmed
Neither the Houston Zoo nor the Welsh aquarium have announced that Rhossi is already at sea. The latest update from Anglesey Sea Zoo, at the end of August, was that she was still undergoing treatment in Galveston.
NOAA notes that after growing about 15% per year up to 2009, nests stalled abruptly in 2010 and since then have fluctuated.
At the aquarium they know that recovery can take a turn for the worse. Its site notes that Menai, a Kemp’s ridley that stranded in 2016 at the zoo’s doorstep, was taken to Gran Canaria after eight months with them, “where it was found to have underlying health problems, and later, unfortunately, died.”
The Houston Zoo’s statement about Rhossi was published on August 14, 2026 on its website.
Imagen: Barbara Alicea-Aponte / Houston Zoo
