Maldives Sea Turtle Rescue & Conservation

Sea Turtle Rehabilitation

At the close of August, we were caring for two Olive Ridleys (Lepidochelys olivacea), one Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), and one Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) in our Rehabilitation Centre at Landaa.

At Kuda Huraa, we continue to care for Ari, our amputee Olive Ridley patient. She has been eating a variety of different foods this month, as two large jellyfish washed up on the beach (a blue-bottle jellyfish, and a purple-crown jellyfish). She also enjoyed a sea walk on a calm day with a very low tide, and she loved eating the seagrass!

Sea Turtle Rehabilitation

On 11 August, Dhondheeni (female Olive Ridley turtle, 30kg/65cm) was transferred to Kuda Huraa by the Addu Dive Centre after she was found floating and missing both of her front flippers. The team at Maldivian Aero made sure she had a safe flight to the Rehabilitation Centre (thank you!)
She had a tough time adjusting to her injuries, with a poor appetite initially, before she stopped eating all together. Despite daily care and close monitoring, Dhon sadly died on 2 September.

On 29 August, Hawksbill juvenile Buddy (EI.074, 21g/5cm) was admitted to our Turtle Rescue Centre, after being found floating at Adaaran Select Hudhuranfushi.
Buddy’s carapace was found to have ectoparasites, and she was unable to dive below the water surface (buoyancy syndrome).
With daily care and a healthy diet, Buddy made a quick recovery and was successfully released on 10 September.

Flying Turtle Program

We have been making progress with the paperwork required to relocate our unreleasable sea turtles to a new permanent home overseas as part of our ongoing Flying Turtle efforts. Currently, we are waiting to hear back from the EPA for the protected species permits required for transportation.

📢 Our New Turtle Hotline 📞

Our new stickers have arrived, designed to raise awareness of our turtle rescue and rehabilitation facilities, and to promote the contact details for our new hotline number 9-TURTLE. Distribution of the promo materials has started around North Malé Atoll, with plans to roll-out countrywide in the coming months.

Ocean Enclosure

Our large ocean enclosure out in the lagoon at Landaa is used for the rehabilitation of our injured sea turtle patients. Recently, we have been repairing several small tears in the netting, and started the mammoth scrubbing task of cleaning the net free from algae and other growth. Keeping the net clean is important to extending its lifespan. Both Maw and Artemis have spent some time in the pen this month.

Outreach Program

We are in the process of designing and printing awareness materials that will form part of a new local outreach initiative. We plan to distribute posters and stickers to classrooms and the wider community, to increase awareness of the threats to sea turtles, and to provide advice on the procedures to follow if an injured turtle is found.

Lhaviyani Turtle Festival, 27 August 2022

We were excited to participate in the 2022 Lhaviyani Turtle Festival, and wish to thank Atoll Marine Centre for hosting such a fun and informative event.

We were joined by groups of school children from nearby local islands, to learn more about turtle conservation and the threats faced by the marine environment in the Maldives. There were interactive games to raise awareness about plastic pollution and recycling, and we wove colourful bracelets from salvaged ghost netting while chatting about the importance of turtle conservation.

We also held a coral workshop and panel discussion to discuss our work, and to demonstrate the techniques required to successfully build a coral frame.

Shortly after the festival, we happily announced the winners of the photo competition, who each received their own coral frame sponsorship, namely @akiriali for BEST PHOTO 🎖 and @raajjesoru for MOST LIKED photo 💙

REEFSCAPERS Coral Propagation & Reef Restoration in the Maldives

Monthly Progress

At Landaa during August, we transplanted 19 new coral frames (9 guest-sponsored, 10 Resort-sponsored). We also monitored (cleaned, repaired, photographed) 108 coral frames at various sites around the island. We continue to build our generous guest sponsorship (50 large frames), adding a further 13 frames to Mudikaashi Reef.

At Kuda Huraa this month, we transplanted 5 new coral frames, retransplanted three existing frames, and monitored (cleaned, repaired, photographed) a total of 81 frames around the island. In addition, our apprentices and intern worked arduously to identify and remove any old frames in the Channel.

We started a new experiment to study sustainable alternatives to plastic cable ties – follow our research updates over at Reefscapers.

Read our Reefscapers Diaries for further details and photographs of our ongoing coral propagation efforts and reef regeneration experiments, both in the Lab and out in the lagoon, updated each month. You may also be interested in our ongoing research and photography, studying coral spawning.

50 Years of Tourism Festival – Fulhadhoo

On 26-27 August, our team travelled to the local island of Fulhadhoo (Baa Atoll) to attend a festival to mark the 50th Anniversary of Tourism in the Maldives. The event was live-streamed by local broadcaster PSM News, and attended by representatives from government, nearby resorts, Baa Atoll marine rangers, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In addition, groups of children from different Baa Atoll schools had been invited to Fulhadhoo, where they were informed about our coral propagation program, the tourism industry in the Maldives, and threats to the environment.

Following the presentations, a total of 10 small coral frames were built, involving the school kids in the process, from attaching the fragments to placing them out on the reef. A total of 380 fragments were attached to the frames, which were collected from a local reef abundant with Acropora species. (Fragments of Montipora foliosa were also harvested, and brought back to Landaa Giraavaru for propagation to increase coral genetic diversity). Following the frame building process, we assisted in guiding groups of kids around the local reef, including the site where the coral frames were finally placed.