Artemis

female Hawksbill turtle (RB.EI.041), admitted 24 May 2021, Velaa, Noonu Atoll, Maldives

Weight, Length: 22.0kg / 59.0cm (on admittance); 20.0kg / 59.4cm (Aug-22); 21.4kg / 59.4cm (Jan-23).

Artemis is a fully grown female Hawksbill turtle, rescued by our colleagues at Velaa Private Island (Noonu Atoll). She was unable to dive, and had a large amount of algae and barnacles on her shell, indicating she’d been floating on the ocean surface for a long time.

Artemis arrived at our turtle rescue centre at Landaa Giraavaru in a very weak condition; she was dehydrated and presented a badly injured front flipper (likely from prolonged entanglement in a ghost fishing net).

Artemis was cleaned of all epibiota and placed in a freshwater bath for rehydration. She was started on antibiotics and we tended her wounds. Despite the swelling and severe lacerations, she is starting to use her flipper, which hopefully means we can still save it and avoid amputation. It will be a long recovery, but we hope she can one day be returned back to the ocean where she belongs!

Updates June 2021

Artemis continues with her course of antibiotics, frequent wound debridement and cleaning. All her wounds are healing appropriately; as soon as they are closed we can start physical therapy to help her recover the strength in her fight front flipper. She has a very healthy appetite and attempts diving constantly.

July

Artemis finished her course of antibiotics, and continues with frequent wound debridement and cleaning. Only one big wound remains in the cranial aspect of her right front flipper. She was transferred to one of the white tanks to encourage her diving by placing food at the bottom.

August

Artemis continues to make steady progress. The wound on her right front flipper is nearly healed and she’s using the flipper more and more; it will take time to recover the natural movement since she lost most of the cranial musculature, but it’s improving. She’s actively trying to dive, and has now reached the bottom of the white tank. She was transferred to a deeper tank to allow some exercise, and she’ll be transferred to the ocean enclosure as soon as it becomes available.

September Updates

Artemis continues to make steady progress, the wound on her right front flipper is now completely healed. She’s actively trying to dive and can reach the bottom of the tank, but she’s still very vertical when diving, although we are hopeful that with exercise and patience, she will be able to dive properly and be released.

October

Artemis has regained some of the flipper musculature, which is very promising. She’s continues to actively try to dive, and is very enthusiastic in her attempts. We continue to feed her at the bottom of the pool, to encourage diving and buildup flipper strength.

November Updates

Artemis can reach the bottom of the white tank, but her caudal end is still very buoyant. Depending on her improvement, she could be transferred to the ocean enclosure.

December

Artemis continues to make steady progress; she’s using her injured flipper more than before, and she has regained more of the musculature. For the last month, she’s been very picky about her food, enjoying lobster and prawns, but will only eat dark fish muscle occasionally. There has not been any change in her weight or attitude, and she continues to be very active.

February 2022

Artemis is making good progress. She remains buoyant, and spends her time on the surface, but enjoys interacting with her enrichment toys. Her injured flipper remains partially usable, but will hopefully regain some extra function.
Artemis is still a picky eater; her favourite food is prawns, but she often spits out pieces of fish that she doesn’t like. However, she enjoys chasing small pieces of food around her pool, which encourages her to exercise and build muscle in the injured flipper. When the ocean enclosure is up and running again, she’ll be the first patient to enjoy it.

March

Artemis has been transferred to our lagoon enclosure. She is trying hard to dive, but isn’t yet able to remain below the water surface for any length of time.

After a few enjoyable days in the lagoon enclosure, Artemis remains buoyant but is making efforts to dive for food. Once the new shade-cover arrives, we will take her back out to the enclosure. She remains a fussy eater and spits out everything she doesn’t like!

April

Artemis has been up and down this month. She had a minor procedure in mid- April to try to remove some of the air trapped under her shell. This was very successful and over 2 litres of air was removed. However, she is still buoyant which indicates that the damage to her lungs is ongoing. She was briefly out in the ocean pen but has since stopped eating. We are currently doing everything we can to look after her and hope she recovers.

May

Artemis has lost some weight this month. She had a period of being even more fussy with her food than usual. Thankfully, this has resolved and she is eating well again. She remains buoyant but attempts to dive often.

June

Artemis remains buoyant, unable to dive much below the water surface. But she has a healthy appetite, and particularly enjoyed a large comb jellyfish which the Launch team found this month.

July

Artemis has been doing well this month. Although her buoyancy remains unchanged, she is a lot more active and has become very enthusiastic during meal times thanks to the hard work and positive interactions with our intern and apprentices.

August

Artemis’ turtle buoyancy syndrome remains unchanged – she floats on the surface of the water, unable to dive down for food. However, she has been very active recently, and has been swimming in our large lagoon enclosure. Keeping Artemis fit and healthy gives her the best chance of recovering her ability to dive.

September

Artemis has been trying hard to dive over the last few weeks. Although her buoyancy has fluctuated in the past, it does appear that she is sitting slightly lower in the water … we remain ever-hopeful of  a slow recovery.

October – November

Artemis’ condition remains largely unchanged. She continues to practice her diving, and is very motivated to retrieve food items such as prawns from lower down in the water. To help her with this, we have built a new feeding device which encourages her to dive.

December

On 12 December, Artemis underwent a surgical procedure to remove her damaged flipper.

After months of rehab, she had regained no function in her front right limb, and she was getting it caught in objects around the pools.
After receiving a general anaesthetic to ensure that the surgery would not cause her any pain, she was moved to our surgery area set up in the lab. The operation was a great success, with no complications.

Artemis recovered from her anaesthetic overnight  in the Lab, to make sure she was fully awake before going back into her pool. She was quiet for a few days, but is now back to her normal self – eating well, and very active.

Once the surgical site has healed fully, likely within a few weeks, Artemis will be moved back into the ocean enclosure for an extended period to encourage her full recovery. If she learns to dive again during this time, she will be able to be released back into the wild.

January 2023; 21.4kg / 59.4cm

The wound from Artemis’ amputation surgery has healed well, and we plan to introduce her to an extended stay in our ocean enclosure, to encourage more natural diving behaviours.

February

Artemis’ condition remains stable. This month she has been interacting extensively with the large log we have been using for enrichment. Her appetite remains good; however, her buoyancy remains unchanged.

March

Artemis’ condition remains stable, and her buoyancy remains unchanged. She continues to interact with the large enrichment log.

April

Artemis is healthy and active, with a healthy appetite. She attempts to dive after the food offered at the bottom of the tank, but her buoyancy issues remain.

May

Since Xanchi was moved to the ocean enclosure, Artemis has had full use of the white tiled tank and has taken to resting in the back corner next to the drainage pipe. Her condition remains stable and her appetite is good. This month, we added a weighted hula hoop as enrichment, which she frequently attempts to dive through.

June

Artemis’ condition remains stable. She continues to attempt retrieval of food items from the tank floor – her success at this depends upon the size of the food in question, and she remains unable to fully submerge.
Artemis’ favourite enrichment item this month has been the log, which she frequently scratches against her shell.

October

This month, we started to experiment with weights, to try to counteract the extra air trapped in Artemis’ shell. The weights were enclosed in bandage pouches stuck to her shell, allowing easy adjustments and removal. Artemis is tolerating the treatment well, but has not yet shown any signs of improvement in diving.

With the arrival of Imala (who was suffering from infection and open wounds), Artemis was moved back into the white tank to prevent exposing her to contaminated water. We have continued offering at least one meal per day utilising the suspended pipe enrichment device, but have not yet seen significant improvement in the depths she can reach.

September

This month, we have had two turtle patients – Mariyam and Artemis – spend time in the sea pen. Artemis was transferred to the sea pen on 15 September, a few days after Mariyam’s release, to give her the opportunity for increased exercise and to encourage her diving.

Artemis has shown interest in exploring her new environment and has maintained a healthy appetite since her transfer. However, we have not yet seen improvements in her buoyancy or attempts to dive when food is not utilized as motivation. In addition, during the hot sunny weather immediately following her transfer, we observed a slight raising of her 4th left lateral scute; to combat this we have heavily applied Vaseline on two occasions, and we will be regularly monitoring her for any changes.

October 2024 Updates

Artemis was returned from the sea pen due to inclement weather early this month. Following her return, Artemis began rejecting all offers of fish at feeding times, so she was swapped to a diet of shrimp and has since shown greater effort in diving to retrieve food. No imrovements in her buoyancy at rest has been observed, and she was transferred to Kuda Huraa on 24 October as part of a patient swap.

November

Artemis is doing well after her transfer to Kuda Huraa. She was sent to make space for several of Kuda Huraa’s patients which will benefit from using Landaa’s ocean enclosure.

January 2025 Updates

Artemis has been stable this month. She is active and has a good appetite. We have started a series of comprehensive health exams (X-ray, ultrasound, hematology panel) to assess her suitability for our Flying Turtles Programme. The goal is to rehome Artemis in an aquarium as an educational ambassador for sea turtles, promoting awareness of marine conservation and contributing to scientific research.

August 2025 Updates

This month, Artemis continues to be her charismatic self, full of personality. From being the centre of attention for turtle feeding, to basking under her palm leaf, she has been the princess of our rehabilitation centre and the favourite of the visiting school students this month. She has remained steady in her eating and daily habits. Daily enrichment is provided for her to maintain positive mental health and reduce stress.

September

This month, Artemis continues to be her charismatic self: full of personality! From being the centre of attention for turtle feeding, to basking under her palm leaf, she has been the princess of our rehabilitation center. She has remained steady in her eating and daily habits, and behaved as we thought she would for turtle treatments. Daily enrichment to her environment is provided to maintain positive mental health and reduce stress.

October

There have been many changes in Artemis’s life! We have made some adjustments to the environmental enrichment in her tank so that she can feel more comfortable in her daily routine. We added shade and shelter as part of her enrichment so she can take stress-free naps. We also had to reduce the frequency with which we offer her palm leaves—even though they’re her favorite—due to intestinal issues. Despite all this, Artemis remains the same charismatic turtle who wins the hearts of everyone who meets her. In November, we will continue working on her environment to provide the best possible care for our lovely turtle.

November

November has been a calm month for Artemis. She continues to have the wonderful personality that captivates everyone during feeding time. Meanwhile, we’ve dedicated a lot of time to caring for her shell. It seems she’s about to shed, so we’ve been paying special attention to protecting and keeping her shell moist to make this process as easy as possible for her. This procedure is essential for turtles with buoyancy syndrome, since their carapaces are designed to be submerged most of the time, and exposure to air, sun, and heat will eventually damage them.

December

Artemis continues to be a highly social rehabilitation patient, charming everyone at her afternoon feeding sessions. She is currently our only turtle classified as “non-releasable” due to her treatment-resistant chronic buoyancy syndrome. To improve her well-being, we have developed and implemented a target training programme for her.

Artemis’s training has taught her to follow a personalised target around her tank, touching it with her beak to receive positive reinforcement reward: her food. To our absolute delight, Artemis has picked up her training incredibly well and performed the task quickly and consistently both during quiet morning feeds and in front of guests during her afternoon feeds. To progress her training, we therefore added the additional challenge of a choice-based discrimination task by introducing a second target that was almost identical aside from its colour. This was no challenge for Artemis, who chose the correct target every time.

Looking forward, we hope to utilise Artemis’s training to continue improving her well-being in our care, by hopefully desensitising her to necessary medical treatments through positive reinforcement. In the meantime, she continues to act as an excellent turtle ambassador, helping us to educate guests about the challenges turtles face and the importance of well-being in a rehabilitation facility.

January 2026 Updates

Artemis has continued being her feisty self, and continuing to excel in her target training. Although, she is trying to bite the target, so we are working on that behaviour accordingly. When she is given the option to choose the targets, she is able to decipher which is her correct colour (blue) and the wrong one (red). Her buoyancy is consistent, and she has been enjoying her enrichment toys, especially the square. She often wears it or wrestles with it in her tank.

February

Artemis has continued being her feisty self, and continues to excel in her target-training. She is improving on her target touching aggression, and is more often than not only touching it and opening her mouth rather than attacking the target like before. Her buoyancy is consistent, and she has been enjoying her enrichment toys, especially the square, which she often wears or wrestles with in her tank.

March

Artemis has remained stable throughout the month. Target training has continued, and she remains the charismatic turtle who wins over everyone she meets. At the beginning of the month, she experienced a minor setback after being offered a palm leaf (a favoured enrichment item). Due to her high level of interest and prolonged ingestion, she developed a mild impaction, which was successfully resolved with fluid therapy and enemas. After a few days of fasting, she returned to her normal condition.

April

Artemis remains stable. Target training has continued, and she continues to be the most charismatic turtle who wins over everyone she meets.

May

Artemis remained stable and continued to do well under our care. We also continued progressing with the Flying Turtles project, which aims to relocate her to a land-based aquarium “forever home” where she would continue to receive lifelong care while helping to educate and inspire visitors about sea turtle conservation. As part of this initiative, one of the resort’s guests has generously offered to fully cover the transportation costs. We are currently working with the relevant government authorities to obtain the necessary permits for the international relocation, which remains the main challenge before the project can move forward.

June

Artemis has remained stable throughout the month. Target training has continued, and she remains the charismatic turtle who wins over everyone she meets. The only update about her condition is that she is slightly less buoyant, which is encouraging news.

July 2026 … sad news

Last month saw a significant improvement in Artemis’ buoyancy, which at the time appeared to be an encouraging sign of recovery. Unfortunately, we would later understand that this sudden change was not a true improvement, but rather the first indication of the deterioration that was to follow.

On 22 July, Artemis began showing concerning clinical signs. She initially stopped eating and became increasingly lethargic and depressed. The following day, she developed episodes of uncontrolled neck movements, which progressively increased in both duration and intensity over the next 24 hours. Our initial suspicion was the presence of a foreign body, but this was ruled out after passing an oesophageal tube.

We then suspected an underlying respiratory problem, particularly after abnormal respiratory sounds became evident. Artemis was removed from the water and placed in a dry environment, where she remained extremely lethargic and continued to experience significant respiratory distress despite supportive medical treatment.

Two days later, Artemis passed away. The subsequent post-mortem examination revealed severe pulmonary collapse, providing an explanation that was consistent with the clinical signs observed during her final days. This was likely the consequence of the severe and prolonged buoyancy syndrome she had experienced, with chronic internal air accumulation placing sustained pressure on the surrounding organs and, ultimately, contributing to irreversible respiratory compromise.

For our team, Artemis’ passing will forever change the way we see our rehabilitation centre. After more than five years of bringing joy to everyone who met her, she became far more than a long-term patient; she was a familiar presence, a part of our daily lives, and one of the faces that defined our centre. Her absence will be deeply felt by everyone who had the opportunity to know her, and her story will remain an important part of the history of our centre.

Rest in peace, Artemis. You will never be forgotten.