Navy officers and marine veterinarians on Wednesday released the turtle – 80 kilograms in weight and believed to be 20 to 30 years old – near the naval base on Koh Samui in Surat Thani.
Commander Thawat Suwannarat, chief of the base, and Watchara Sakornwimol, head of a vet team at the Marine and Coastal Resource Research and Development Centre for the Eastern Gulf of Thailand in Chumphon, were in charge of the operation.
The animal had been injured when it was caught and underwent four months of treatment and recuperation.