She has been swimming round in circles for most of her short life.
But after being fitted with a prosthetic fin, Allison the green sea turtle with only one flipper is back on the straight and narrow.
Scientists designed a special black neoprene suit with a carbon-fibre attachment to allow her to glide gracefully along with other turtles.
Ninja turtle: Allison, a rescued green sea turtle who has only one flipper, swims with the aid of her new fin attached with neoprene yesterday
Allison, who is five and has a life-expectancy of 150, is believed to have lost her fliiper in a shark attack
She arrived at Sea Turtle Inc., a Texas rescue centre that rehabilitates injured sea turtles, in 2005 and was so badly injured staff feared she would not survive.
But she recovered and wormed her way into the hearts of her rescuers, who have tried to find a way of stopping her swimming in circles.
Vets fit Allison with her new fin
A team of scientists spent months trying to develop a prosthetic flipper but there was not enough of a stump remaining to attach prosthetics.
In the end they came up with the suit, which covers three quarters of her body, acts as a rudder and gives her stability.
Allison can change direction by varying the strokes of her front right flipper,
'The whole reason we're doing this is to improve her quality of life,' said Tom Wilson, a 21-year-old intern who thought up the suit using the physics of canoe paddling.
The prosthetic means Allison no longer has to swim in circles
The scientists have developed equations that will allow them to tailor new suits and fins because Allison could grow to 600 pounds.
Curator Jeff George said turtles with only one flipper are usually put down because they would struggle to reach the surface for air.
Two-flipper turtles can be adopted by zoos and three-flipper turtles can be returned to the wild.
Even though Allison will never return to the sea, the groundbreaking work will make her an 'ambassador' for an endangered species, George said.
