A BOTTLE thrown into the sea off the coast of Galicia has been found two years later in the Bahamas.

Members of the marine mammal study centre (MEMMA) in Santiago de Compostela left the bottle on top of an underwater mountain of some 4,400 metres in height at around 120 miles off the coast of Galicia back in 2007.

It has been found on the small island of Plana de Cays in the Bahamas.

Experts carried out the experiment to see how long it would take the bottle to cross the ocean, enabling them to study sea currents and work out where marine fauna on the Spanish coast comes from.

Linda Chris Ashley, who found it, got in touch with CEMMA.

The information she was able to supply gave vital clues about the habits of marine turtles.

It meant scientists were able to work out that these creatures took less time than originally believed to cross the ocean.

If turtles travelled directly from Galicia to the Caribbean, they would take two to three years to do so, according to data from the Caribbean Conservation Corporation.