Hi, my name is Adam, and I’m the new intern here at Four Seasons Kuda Huraa. I have been here for the last five wonderful weeks and will be here until September; plenty of time to get involved with the great work the team do here at the Marine Discovery Centre and to learn all I can about the amazing marine life in the Maldives.
I have just finished studying Environmental Science at Plymouth University and prior to that I studied Marine Science in Falmouth; it’s great that I can finally put my knowledge to the test in the ‘real world’! I didn’t want to waste any time in getting out here, and as soon as I finished my final exam I was straight in the taxi and off to the airport!
The last five weeks have already been such great fun and every day is so varied. Here is an idea of my ‘typical day’:
– 07:30: Good morning!
– 08:15: Short ferry ride to the resort island
– 08:30: Breakfast in the canteen
– 09:00: Check on all turtles and feed our aquarium fish
– 09:30: Turtle feeding and cleaning
– 10:30: Turtle medical treatments
– 12:00: Lunch time
– 13:00: Turtle feeding (veggies) and prepare for the afternoon guest excursion
– 14:00: Snorkel briefing and marine life presentation
– 14:30: Head out on the boat to see sharks or turtles
– 16:30: Turtle dinner of fish and lobster
– 17:00: Record of who ate what food
– 17:30: Dolphin cruise
– 20:00: Dinner time
The majority of my time is spent tending to our resident turtles, especially as Jamie (our turtle biologist) has now gone on holiday, so the responsibility lies with me and Kim (our marine biologist). We currently have 19 turtles in house, however, when I first arrived we had 22! Turtles are sent to us from all around the Maldives, often after being found floating in ghost fishing nets, or sent to us as part of our Head Start programme.
Ghost fishing nets are lost or discarded fishing nets which float around in the ocean collecting and killing marine life for years. These nets often attract turtles as an easy source of food, however, when the turtles get close to investigate they can easily become entangled within the filaments of the net. Turtles, like us, need to come to the surface to breathe, and when entangled they can often drown. In some cases they may need their flippers amputated as the filaments of the nets become tighter and tighter, causing irreparable tissue damage.
Our Head Start programme consists of monitoring turtle nests when they hatch. At this time, most of the hatchlings head straight to the sea to start their lives, however, some undersized or unhealthy individuals are often left behind in the nest. These remaining hatchlings would usually die if left on their own, so we collect these stragglers and grow them on until they are of a decent size (>30cm) and they can then be released into the wild with a much better chance of survival.
The first week was a busy one as three new rehab turtles turned up in three consecutive days. The first of which was a large hawksbill turtle who was found floating at the surface; she was not interested in any food we gave her and unfortunately passed away after a few days. After carrying out a necropsy we discovered lots of plastic inside her stomach. Plastic pollution in the seas is a major issue for sea turtles as they can easily mistake it for food, once consumed, plastic can block the turtle’s intestines causing them to starve to death. As well as this, plastic pieces can accumulate persistent organic pollutants from the water; these can leach out once consumed and cause the turtles lots of discomfort and potential illness.
The second of our new arrivals was Aleena, a Green sea turtle. She was found floating at the surface suffering from ‘floating syndrome’. This can be caused by air being trapped in the turtle’s gut due to a blockage in their digestive system or through other natural illness such as pneumonia or an infection in the lungs. It can also occur following a stressful event such as a shark attack or a boat strike; either way the turtle becomes positively buoyant and is unable to dive for food. Aleena would not eat at all when with us, so after a week of giving ‘IV’ to keep her fluids up we had to make the decision to start tube feeding as she was losing a lot of weight. Sadly, after just over two weeks with us she passed away. After carrying out a necropsy it was found that she was in fact a he, and that he had a large blockage in his digestive system and his intestines were swollen up like a balloon. It was a sad day for us all at the MDC.
The third turtle we received was Nash, another Olive Ridley turtle who was found entangled in a fishing net. When he arrived he was very stressed and could not dive. After 10 days he was happily diving and resting on the bottom of the pool so it was time to send him home. We were lucky enough to be able to fit Nash with a satellite tag, donated to us by Dusit Thani Maldives, so we can track his movements (these tags are very expensive so we cannot fit them to all of our turtles). Once securely attached, the tag can last for up to one year and should give us a picture of the oceanic journey of the turtle, especially helpful for Olive Ridley turtles as they are a predominantly oceanic species so knowledge on where they travel to is limited (as opposed to the Green and Hawksbill turtles, which are regularly seen on the shallow reefs around the Maldives).
On release, Nash shot off and within two weeks has already travelled over 400 km! You can track his progress here, on our interactive satellite tracking maps.
Another of our rehab turtles is Greg, an Olive Ridley turtle, but he is like a big puppy dog and loves back scratches! He was found floating around at the surface and had lost both of his front flippers, most likely the result of a ghost fishing net. His flipper stumps were well-healed so the amputation probably occurred around one month before coming to us. His eyesight was also very poor, possibly a result of floating in the sun for such an extended period of time. After giving him lots of medication and eye ointment every day, Greg is now a very happy turtle with much improved eyesight. Unfortunately Greg will not be able to be released back to the wild as he will struggle to dive for his food, so the hope is that we can find an aquarium somewhere in the world with the resources to offer a nice home and to help educate people about the impact of oceanic ghost nets.
But it’s not all about turtles, as I have also been busy with guest snorkel trips, dolphin cruises, scientific projects, coral reef monitoring and surfing world class waves at the local breaks! I am having such a great time here and can’t wait to update you again on my goings on at the end of the month!
Thanks for reading
Adam
Plastic from Hawksbill stomach
Beach sand art
Nash VIP transfer
Nash swims free
Do you want to experience life as a marine biologist
here in the Maldives ?
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