We had a new turtle admitted to our rehabilitation centre, sent from Kuda Huraa, named Squirtle. Squirtle had all four flippers intact, but was buoyant on one side making her lopsided, indicating a problem with one of her lungs. Unfortunately, 2 weeks after she arrived in Landaa she became lethargic, lost interest in eating and then sadly died.
In more positive news, Shaaru will now eat prawns, so we add some to our turtle food to encourage her to eat. We still hunt for crabs for her, to make sure she’s getting as much food as possible, as she lost a little weight when she arrived. We still offer a piece of fish every day, but she refuses to eat it!
I have managed to identify 5 new Bottlenose dolphins and 1 new Spinner dolphin, and re-sighted a further 12 dolphins already identified in the database. Plus, I’ve seen some cool creatures on guided adventure snorkels such as this whitetail stingray …
Although I am a PADI Divemaster, it had been almost a year since I had last dived, so I took an orientation dive on the House Reef where it was nice to see the coral frames flourishing, and the fish making use of them as shelter.
I have also been out on the manta research boat, and was lucky enough to see a whale shark one day, and a mass-feeding of around 50 manta rays … which was incredible!
See you in Chapter 3
Saphire 😊
