Tenacious Polly was first seen by Local Ocean Trust in October 2009. Even as a juvenile, with a carapace length of just 46.1cm, Polly was looking to get her crushing jaws on any unsuspecting fingers! We tagged her with the number 4858 and set her free.

We saw Polly again in October 2012 when she was admitted to our Rehabilitation Centre with an injury to her front flipper most likely to be caused by predation. Her tenacious character made her stand out from our other patients and the staff and volunteers soon learned to love her. Once Polly had fully recovered from her injury we set released her back into the ocean once again.

We have met Polly a few times since then but most recently in early December 2014 and her curved carapace length is now 57.6 cm, so she’s grown 11.5cm since we first saw her. She is still so active and feisty and her hawk like beak just wants to bite something or someone. We are so glad she is doing well as she is one of the very few bigger hawksbill turtles we have seen in Watamu. We are pleased to report that Polly is very healthy and we were able to release her from Watamu beach.

Good luck Polly, we may see you again one day!