A loggerhead turtle will be released back into the ocean Wednesday after a year of rehabilitation.

The turtle, nicknamed “Tammy,” spent a year at the Sea Turtle Recovery Center at the Turtle Back Zoo after it was injured by a boat propeller.

Staff at the rehabilitation center say that “Tammy” has greatly improved over the year. The 40-year-old turtle has put on 55 pounds and is eating better than when she first came in to the center.

“She had over 38 pounds of barnacles, muscles and mud on her back,” says Bill Deerr, co-executive director at the Sea Turtle Recovery Center.

Tammy was brought to the center after she was picked up by a Coast Guard crew in the Delaware Bay. She was found floating and unable to dive. Deerr says that they found six propeller cuts on her back after she as cleaned up.

“Those cuts exposed bone which were mostly healed when we found her but she still had internal infections so we had to treat her with antibiotics for several months,” he says.

Deerr says that she also had to regrow a portion of her shell. But she is now very active.

“That means she’s ready to go and we are so excited to see that,” says Brandi Biehl, another co-executive director at the center.

Tammy will be released with three other sea turtles into the ocean off Water Street in Point Pleasant Beach next week. The center says that it expects the turtles to thrive back in the wild. A satellite tag will also be placed on Tammy’s’ back so that they can track her movements to see if she stays off the New Jersey coast or moves elsewhere.