Maldives Sea Turtle Rescue & Rehabilitation

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

At Kuda Huraa, we are currently at capacity with five Olive Ridley rescue patients occupying our rehabilitation pools. Our long-term turtle patients, Ari and Emma, continue to share our largest pool, divided down the centre. Ari has become a fussy eater, perhaps due to her new tank arrangements, whereas Emma seems to enjoy looking through the tank window, observing the world passing by. Emma also went on her first ocean rehabilitation swim this month, to encourage the use of her injured flipper. She surprised all of us by immediately diving towards the sea floor using only her rear flippers (with her front flipper tucked under her shell).

Updates on Our January Admissions

• Xanchi – wounds and lacerations are healing well, so we plan to relocate him to our ocean enclosure out in Landaa’s lagoon, to aid rehabilitation
• Seakid – started eating properly and his wounds have healed, but buoyancy is still a huge problem
• Michelangela – our February patient of the month! 🥇 She has completed the antibiotics, her wounds are healing well, and she is relaxed on the treatment table. She has already been diving and eating food from the bottom of the tank, so we hope to release her soon
• Burrita – a stressful month, incurring injuries from collision with the tank wall, so we moved her to our largest tank. She still has a healthy appetite, hunting food from pipes and devouring frozen ‘fish popsicles’
• Mora – sadly died on 5 February. A post-mortem examination revealed damaged lungs and some plastic in her oesophagus (likely eaten by accident while entangled and unable to find food)

Sea Turtle Nest Protection

• On 6 and 17 February, we had two further green turtle nests laid on the beaches at Landaa. Both nests were laid near the first two laid in January (the beach at Villa #200).
• On 26 February, a third turtle made a ‘false crawl’ up the staff beach, but no nest was laid. We suspect this individual will return in the next few nights.

We are inspecting all four of our nests regularly, and have installed a remote camera to monitor the first nest. The new remote monitoring camera is solar-powered, and will send alerts when movement is detected. We hope to see the first hatchlings as they emerge from the sand, one night after 8 March.

February Turtle Admissions

During February, the only sick turtle patients we received at Kuda Huraa were (unusually) of two hawksbill hatchlings:

• one hatchling was found on the beach, dehydrated and very sick; we think it had been dropped by a flying bird, but despite our best efforts it soon died.
• the second hatchling was found in shallow water close to the beach; it was full of energy, so after a full health check it was released later that day, out in the open ocean (along with some palm leaves and seagrass for temporary protection).