With the Irish seas becoming warmer in recent years, Ireland has seen more turtles arriving in its southern waters, with up to 20 sightings of leatherback turtles a year.

Loggerhead turtles are also occasionally spotted, although they prefer warmer waters than ours.

"But leatherbacks are very happy in our seas, " said marine biologist Tom Doyle, "and from our research we have found that they can stay for up to three months in the summer."

This is what happened with Cuas, the female turtle who was discovered in Dingle in 2005. After hanging around Ireland for a while, she swam to the Canary Islands and on to Cape Verde in Africa.

Her progress was tracked by children and adults throughout the country on turtle. ie and there was great upset when her satellite transmission was lost for a while. She resurfaced, however, and was tracked as far as Canada before her transmission was finally lost near Newfoundland last October.

The male turtle, who was never named, was tagged in Dingle in June of last year before spending two months around the Bay of Biscay. He astounded researchers by reaching Brazil in just 220 days and by diving to 1280 metres . . . deeper than any other recorded turtle dive.

In February, however, his transmission was lost near French Guiana and he hasn't been heard from since.