![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Barnacle-Bills-new-home-address-west-of-Portugal-in-the-waters-of-the-Azores.jpg\")
Pictured: Barnacle Bill\u2019s new home address, west of Portugal in the waters of the Azores.<\/p>\nBarnacle Bill, the long-captive, loggerhead sea turtle, is finally being prepared for her release back into the wild.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After being rescued in Guernsey following Storm Ciar\u00e1n in November 2023, she was transferred to Sea Life Brighton in December 2024 to prepare for her release, and after more than nine months there she\u2019ll now be released to her new home near the Azores.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The young female loggerhead sea turtle was originally found washed ashore and covered in barnacles in Guernsey after Storm Ciar\u00e1n, weighing in at just 1kg. She has since gone on to grow to a healthy 13kg.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Barnacle Bill is only the second loggerhead turtle ever recorded in Guernsey.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
She\u2019s now on the final stage of her journey following a prolonged period in Guernsey where efforts to repatriate her were complicated by Brexit-related paperwork, specifically CITES health certificates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spending over a year in the Bailiwick, whilst the GSPCA searched for a place that would welcome her home, was a feat of generosity that turned out to be gargantuan in nature.<\/p>\n
The delays showed just how far the animal charity goes to support the Bailiwick\u2019s wildlife, with visa options explored for multiple other potential destinations, including Gran Canaria, Cape Verde, Turkey, and Bermuda.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pictured: Barnacle Bill\u2019s new home address, west of Portugal in the waters of the Azores.<\/p>\n
13 months after she received a vital helping hand from the charity, she finally got a room upgrade, from the under construction GSPCA\u2019s shelter, to state of the art digs at Sea Life Brighton.<\/p>\n
Joe Williams, Sea Life Brighton curator said of their latest star guest: \u201cGetting to put her in the water \u2013 going back off to hopefully live a long, healthy life \u2013 I\u2019m sure will be emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bSteve Byrne, GSPCA Manager, added: \u200b\u201cFor Bill to get back to warm waters is a delight for us.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201dWe are currently building a new Wildlife Hospital for all species we may see and there are areas we will be able to use if we have future sea turtles which we have had three in the last 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Should you discover a rare sighting of a sea turtle washed ashore, Mr Byrne urged speed in making contact with the animal charity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would urge the public if you find a stranded turtle in Guernsey, to call us on 257261 immediately as they may be very close to death.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barnacle Bill, the long-captive, loggerhead sea turtle, is finally being prepared for her release back into the wild.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[142109,142110,142111,802,748,12450,2000,299,5187,1699,142112,4884,142113,7909,142114,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-413617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-azores","9":"tag-barnacle-bill","10":"tag-barnacle-bill-the-brexit-turtle","11":"tag-brexit","12":"tag-britain","13":"tag-charity","14":"tag-eu","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-european","17":"tag-european-union","18":"tag-expresso-gsy","19":"tag-great-britain","20":"tag-gspca","21":"tag-guernsey","22":"tag-sea-life-brighton","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115181059307990286","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}