Cadi

juvenile Olive Ridley turtle, admitted 25 June 2025, Horubadhoo, Baa Atoll, Maldives

Cadi is a juvenile Olive Ridley turtle that was found in Baa Atoll on 25 June, next to the island of Horubadhoo (Villa’s Royal Island Resort). She was found floating on the ocean surface, with nets entangled in her left flipper. Thanfully, she has all four flippers intact. The front left shoulder presents a partially healed wound that should heal well soon (it is already closing, and the wound is relatively shallow). Her carapace has wounds that have already healed, indicating a past injury. The plastron presents injuries that we will monitor and provide care for. The biggest issue is that she is very ~90% buoyant.

July Updates

Cadi’s wounds are healing properly, and hopefully, this issue will be solved soon. She is eating very well and with a lot of appetite, but the buoyancy problem is still there. With the aim of fixing this, we have taken air from the coelomic cavity with a syringe and a needle, but despite having removed many liters of air, it hasn’t improved her buoyancy. We will continue doing this and trying to solve this problem.

August

Cadi is still very buoyant but has lots of energy and eats well. Her wounds are almost healed, and we will soon start encouraging her to dive.

September

Cadi’s buoyancy syndrome seems to be slowly improving – the amount of carapace sitting above the water line has reduced noticeably. Environmental enrichment is being used to encourage Cadi to dive – she tries vigorously and is slowly able to dive deeper. The wounds to her flippers are almost healed, and the prognosis is good (photo taken 23.09.2025).

October

Cadi’s diving abilities have shown significant improvement over the past month. She is now able to dive and rest in the bottom of the tank, which has allowed us to modify her feeding protocol; her food is now dispersed into the tank to encourage diving and promote physical activity. In the near future, we will assess the feasibility of transferring her to the sea pen and hope to release her soon afterwards!

November

Cadi is capable of diving and resting on the bottom of the tank, making her a suitable candidate for release. She currently has an injury on her carapace that is being regularly monitored, cleaned and treated. Once the wound has healed she will be ready for release.

25 December … Release Day !

Cadi was successfully returned back to the ocean today!

After a thorough health evaluation, the decision was made to release Cadi, even though her carapace wounds were not fully healed. Carapace injuries require a long time to heal, and keeping her in rehabilitation for an extended period could increase the risk of complications such as buoyancy issues, reduced appetite, or secondary infections.

On 18 December, Cadi was transferred to the sea pen to allow her to readapt to ocean currents and the natural environment.
On 22 December, we attached a satellite tag. She was then returned to the sea pen until her release, which took place on December 25th.

In just four days, she has already travelled a considerable distance, and we are very excited to follow her movements and see where she goes next.