Leatherback turtles are more common around the Cornish Coast where they prefer the deep and warm waters. Thus, it was a very unusual case to find such a big exemplar on the East coast near Mundon Creek. The 300 kg male had been discovered by a dog walker before the case was handed over to the UK Cetacean Stranding Investigation Program by the local coastguards.
Upon declaring the 1.7 m male as dead, it was taken to the Natural History Museum for investigation. The necroscopy revealed that the turtle had been alive when it stranded. The nutritional condition was assessed to be negative with the intestines only containing fluids and some minor marine debris. The latter is common among leatherbacks because they tend to mistake it as prey due to their own large size. Several swabs and samples of internal organs, skin and brain tissue were taken for follow-up tests.
A very detailed live examination can be found on the twitter page of the Institute of Zoology (warning of graphic pictures): https://twitter.com/ZSLScience. The BBC-report is here: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-50784094
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