GALVESTON — A Dutchman walking his dog last year along the beach near the Hague, Netherlands, stumbled upon an endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle nearly 5,800 miles from her home in the Gulf of Mexico.

After her phenomenal journey across the Atlantic and a recovery from near death, the turtle, named Flip, was flown from the Netherlands to Houston last week and is scheduled to be released into the Gulf from Padre Island on Friday.

A Kemp's ridley was found on the Irish coast two years ago, but experts can't recall a live Kemp's ridley being found as far east as the Netherlands.

“It's very rare, yes, for one to be found alive over in that region and survive rehabilitation,” said Donna Shaver, chief of the division of sea turtle science and recovery at Padre Island National Seashore.

How Flip made it across the Atlantic and into the North Sea is a mystery, but Shaver ventured an educated guess.

Until they are about 2, Kemp's ridleys stay deep in the ocean among floating seaweed and ride the currents. Most Kemp's ridleys never leave the Gulf, but a few make it into the Atlantic and travel as far north as Massachusetts in the summer, Shaver said. A few of those ride the circular Atlantic currents before returning to the Gulf.

Shaver said it's likely that Flip blundered into a current that pulled her in the wrong direction or that she swam in the wrong direction.

Karen Rifenbury, displays curator at Sea Life Grapevine, a Texas aquarium, said another theory is that Flip got caught in a net and became disoriented when she was tossed back.

“She was very emaciated, underweight and cold-stunned,” Rifenbury said.

Dutch animal rescue workers took her to Sea Life Scheveningen, where she was nursed back to health.

Flip was packed into a special crate and put on a flight to Houston donated by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The airline agreed to keep the luggage cabin at 73.4 degrees, the ideal temperature for Flip.