A leatherback turtle has washed up on a County Waterford beach.
The two-metre-long creature was found on Ardmore strand.
Dr Tom Doyle is a lecturer in the School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences at UCC.
He told WLR News that he was in Ardmore this morning.
"It's unusual, these are the largest sea-turtle in the world. They can be over two metres from the tip of their head to the tip of their tail.
"We do get them in Irish waters every year, at most we might have five or six sightings of live animals.
"Unfortunately, this is a dead animal, I'm not quite sure what was the cause of death but, it's washed up in Ardmore.
"Typically we might get one [dead turtle], thankfully many years we don't get any of them.
Dr Doyle will be trying to find out where the turtle came from.
"I took some measurements and then I took some tissue samples for genetics to determine the origin, which population of sea turtles it came from.
"It's most likely this animal has originated from French Guiana or Suriname down in South America.
"I've also taken other tissues to look at some ageing to try to figure out how old this animal was."
Sad to see this leatherback washed up on Ardmore beach, Co Waterford today. It was almost 2 metres long! These fantastic animals visit our waters every summer/autumn to feed on our jellyfish. Thanks to Ronnie Hennessy for reporting it. @uccBEES pic.twitter.com/4n8kUlkILP
— Tom Doyle (@tomkdoyle) November 22, 2019
Dr Tom Doyle says leatherback turtles are the fastest-growing reptiles on the planet.
"Despite this animal being really big, it's over two metres in length, it might be 30 or 40 years old rather than being 100 or 200 years old.
"What I do know for sure is that this a male sea turtle and that it's mature."
He advising people not to get too close to the animal.
"I would certainly recommend that people don't go up poking it and touching it because it's badly decomposed and when you have a dead animal like this washed-up they can have some nasty bacteria associated with them.
Dr Doyle added that he has been in touch with Waterford Council, "we're trying to see if it can be buried somewhere so that it is out of harm's way".
