Queen (the loggerhead turtle) makes big Atlantic Ocean comeback

This enormous, 388-pound, battle-scarred loggerhead — nearly 40 pounds bigger than the top weight for her rare species — has done her best to live up to the glamorous and gritty rock and roll band she was named for: Queen.

She was so close to death when she was rescued July 31 from a South Shore beach, no mention was made of her arrival until Thursday, shortly before she was released back into her Atlantic Ocean home Thursday evening in Hampton Bays.

"She’s definitely ready to go," said Maxine Montello, rescue program director at the nonprofit New York Marine Rescue Center in Riverhead, as Queen swam laps in her tank Thursday.

"This girl is definitely a dinosaur; the youngest I think she is 30 to 40 years old, but I definitely think that is on the lower end."

Queen is by far the largest loggerhead the rescue center has aided. She even tops Munchkin, the giant 330-pound female loggerhead the New England Aquarium healed and released in 2019.

When found on Bellport's Ho-Hum Beach, Queen's shell appeared to bear the marks of being struck by vessels and some flippers either were wounded by a predator or a boat.

Barnacles covered much of her shell, face and her beak, a sign that she had not been moving much, Montello said, and her skin had darkened, probably damaged by sunlight, revealing she had been floating for some time.

Severely dehydrated, underweight and possibly suffering from pneumonia, she required subcutaneous fluid injections, vitamins and other medicines, and initially was too weak to swim in anything but shallow inside tanks.

"She had been suffering for a while," Montello said, saluting the boaters who called the rescue hotline, after finding her. "The minute we saw her we knew this was going to be a challenging case."

Protected in the United States as a threatened species, which means they are likely to become endangered, loggerheads can swim from Newfoundland to Argentina, experts say.

Their survival is imperiled by a host of problems, with boat strikes among the deadliest, researchers say. Entanglements in fishing nets and lines, as well as pollution, coastal lighting and development, and nest predation also dim their future, according to the Sea Turtle Conservancy, a Gainesville, Florida, nonprofit.

It is unusual for New York and New England rescue centers to find ailing adults, Montello said, as they seem more likely to turn up farther south.

Cold stun season, when typically younger sea turtles may succumb to hypothermia after failing to head to the South's warmer waters before autumn might start later this month, she said.

A total of 45 sea turtles that washed ashore were rehabilitated this year at the New York Marine Rescue Center, up from the previous season's 32.

While Queen was not a cold-stun victim, the center knew that if they could heal her, she would be too large to be flown South, the way its younger sea turtles are. It’s not just their weight, Montello said, large turtles cannot handle the stress of flights.

So for Queen, "It’s a last-minute release before our weather changes," she continued.

Queen was tagged so her rescuers and the public can see where she next heads.

To see where Queen journeys, visit the center’s website: nymarinerescue.org.