The rare turtle stranded in Wales thanks to Trump’s aid freeze

A Kemp's ridley sea turtle named Rhossi was found on the coast of northern Wales in 2023 - now he can’t get home

A rare turtle native to the Gulf of Mexico which was rescued from a beach in Wales has found itself stranded in the UK a while longer due to a freeze in US funding following the Trump aid cuts.

Rhossi, a critically endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle, was found on the coast of Anglesey, northern Wales, in 2023.

Rhossi was nursed back to health by the team at Anglesey Sea Zoo, and is now ready to be released back into the wild off the coast of the US, in its native habitat.

But plans to repatriate the turtle have been put on hold after the Trump administration froze all foreign development assistance for at least three months.

This means international marine turtle conservation work done by organisations such as Anglesey Sea Zoo have had to stop - leaving endangered animals such as Rhossi in limbo.

"It is a huge problem - it's very frustrating," Frankie Hobro, the owner and director of Anglesey Sea Zoo, told the BBC.

"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.

A Kemp's ridley sea turtle named Rhossi was found on the coast of Anglesey, northern Wales, in 202 (Getty Images)

"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."

In response to the executive order signed by US president Donald Trump in January, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) froze funding for organisations including the Marine Turtle Conservation Fund.

This organisation had been assisting the Anglesey Sea Zoo in their mission to bring Rhossi back to the Gulf of Mexico.

The zoo has helped another Kemp's ridley sea turtle, named Tally, get back to the US 2023.

Ms Hobro said she remains confident Rhossi would still be able to get home eventually.

"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 told the broadcaster.

"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 Independent has contacted the Anglesey Sea Zoo and the US Fish and Wildlife Service for a comment.