Rotterdam zoo Diergaarde Blijdorp is about to release two rare loggerhead turtles it nursed back to health into their natural habitat near the Azores.

The turtles, which were washed ashore at beaches near Vlissingen and ‘s Gravenzande in December, were in a bad way, with one of the turtles almost entirely covered in mussel shells.

Storm Pia may have driven the animals into the wrong current which took them north where the lower temperatures caused them to become disorientated, experts said at the time.

Bodhi and Brick, as the animals were named, will travel to the Azores at the weekend where they will be released into the Atlantic Ocean after a period of acclimatisation at a local aquarium.

The animals were chipped so the zoo can monitor how they are doing.

Five other rescued loggerhead turtles at the zoo died because a technical hitch caused the water temperature in their basin to increase.

The zoo is also preparing the release of an extremely rare and endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) caught by fishermen off the coast of Walcheren in Zeeland in October last year.