Kemp's ridley sea turtle stranded in Wales after Donald Trump aid freeze

BBC News

25-03-2025

A rare turtle stranded on the Welsh coast faces an unexpected obstacle to getting home - US President Donald Trump.Rhossi washed up on Anglesey at the end of 2023 and has been slowly nursed back to health.The Kemp's ridley sea turtle is now fighting fit, and Anglesey Sea Zoo said Rhossi was ready to be released back into the wild off the coast of the US.However, executive orders signed in the White House means international marine turtle conservation work is on hold for now, leaving Rhossi in limbo.
Kemp's ridley turtles are critically endangered, with only about 7,000 females thought to exist.They are native to the Gulf of Mexico, or Gulf of America as it is now known in the US, and must be released back into those waters.
In January, President Trump pressed pause on all foreign development assistance for at least three months.In response, the federal conservation body, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), froze funding for several organisations, ordering some of the work it oversees to stop.It included the work of the Marine Turtle Conservation Fund, which along with the wildlife service and other agencies, had been the key contacts for getting Rhossi home and then released into the Gulf of Mexico.Then in February, more than 400 employees at the USFWS lost their jobs as part of President Trump's efforts to shrink the size of the federal government's workforce.Polling suggests cutting government spending has widespread support in the US.
Rhossi is the second Kemp's ridley sea turtle Anglesey Sea Zoo has rescued, successfully repatriating one called Tally to Texas before it was released back into the wild in 2023."It is a huge problem - it's very frustrating," said Frankie Hobro, the owner and director of Anglesey Sea Zoo."Animal species don't understand politics, they don't understand boundaries and borders."We'd started to get a really successful repatriation regime in place."We thought we had things so they were running quite smoothly. We were going to fine-tune the process for future turtles."It's very, very frustrating that's been put on hold now really because of politics and this kind of sweeping decision and the far reaching affect it is having way beyond the states."
The former director of USFWS said the impact on conservation projects was "heartbreaking"."I didn't expect this administration to necessarily be friendly towards conservation. I have been surprised at the speed and the degree to which they have undermined decades of goodwill and work in the conservation sphere," said Martha Williams.She was the political pick to run the agency for four years under President Joe Biden, stepping down when Trump started his second term in the White House."International work involved so little money, you know in the big scheme of things, small grants with enormous impact - enormous impact to communities."She described the cuts to promised funding for projects such as marine turtle conservation as "cruel".But where does all this leave Rhossi?Ms Williams said the message was "don't give up"."Speak out - tell the stories, explain why this work is so important, and that it does impact people in a positive way," she said.
Ms Hobro said she believed the zoo would find a way to get the turtle back home.But as yet, they do not know when."We do have other options. We have the option possibly of working through Mexico, which is something we could do in the future and for future turtles," she said."But that would be a shame because we've got these great relationships with these wonderful whole conservation programmes for the species in Texas and the people we've been working with."It's a matter of finding out how long it's going to be on hold for and making a decision as to whether we can still push that through or whether we have to restart from a different angle."The US Fish and Wildlife Service has been approached for comment.