Hope

adult female Olive Ridley turtle, admitted 28 July 2024, Dhonfanu, Baa Atoll, Maldives

Hope is an adult female Olive Ridley turtle, found floating by Dharavandhoo Divers between Dhonfanu and Hanifaru (Baa Atoll) on 28 July. Big thanks to Fareed and our Launch team colleagues for helping with the transfers from Dharavandhoo.

Hope has suffered extensive and severe entanglement injuries, including the loss of her front right flipper, severe abrasion to her face and carapace, resulting in the loss of part of her beak and an area of her carapace over her right shoulder. Her right eye has been damaged and there are three areas of damage to her marginal scutes. She also has scratches on her rear carapace which are consistent with a shark predation attempt. Hope presented with a high algal load on her carapace and is extremely buoyant, with approximately 85% of her carapace above the water surface.

August Updates

Initially after admission, Hope seemed very weak and severely depressed, barely moving in her tank and showing no interest in any food offered. We cleaned her of epibiota and debrided the abrasions to her carapace. This continued for two weeks, with Hope only eating two individual prawns during this whole time period.

From 19 August, Hope began to show a greater interest in food, eating one or two prawns per day until the 23rd, after which she began eating regularly twice per day. Initially, we offered only small amounts of food, gradually increasing from 20g per meal to the current 50g per meal, as Hope showed a corresponding increase in appetite. Since her appetite has increased, we have also observed an increase in Hope’s activity levels, although she has not yet shown any changes in buoyancy or attempts to dive.

We have seen an improvement in Hope’s facial injuries, with an apparent deposition of keratin in the damaged area of her beak – demonstrated by the change in colour from variegated pale pink/dark grey to a more uniform cream colouration.
There have been slight abrasion injuries to Hope’s right eye and the front of her beak, caused by contact with the tank walls. These are minor injuries that will heal with time and with increased tank space (following the release of Oekaashi, and the transfer of Mariyam out to the sea pen).

September

Hope’s health has improved greatly during September, with her new appetite continually high. Her loss in weight (from 33.8kg on admission, to 29kg following her 3-weeks of inappetance) motivated us to increase her feed ration from 50g per meal (August), through 75g for nine days, 80g for 16 days, and 100g by 25 September. We will re-assess her diet after a further weighing session in two weeks’ time. When feeding her from the surface, Hope struggles to accurately gauge the position of food items, often lunging dramatically to the left. However, when the food is placed in front of and slightly below her beak, she appears to have much better depth perception and can feed more easily.

Hope has remained more active, regularly interacting with enrichment devices placed in her tank, but there has been no change to her buoyancy nor any attempts to dive. Her facial injuries have seen more progress, with a slight deposition of keratin in two small areas in proximity to the nostrils, and a further expansion of the healing area in the upper right side. In addition, the shallow abrasion injuries by Hope’s right eye and to the rostral area of her beak observed last month have healed and deposited pigment.

October

Hope has continued to do well this month, but her buoyancy remains unchanged. Her appetite remains high, and the injury to her face and beak has made further healing progress, but she still frequently drops food items during meals. Her carapace injury over the right shoulder is improving rapidly, with much pigmentation and keratin deposition now being observed, hardening up the tissue in this area.

The section of dead bone across the lateral scutes on Hope’s right side began to lift; we exposed the borders and initially removed small sections to encourage healing. Over a period of approximately 2 weeks, the remaining bone lifted further, and on 29 October we were able to remove the majority, exposing soft tissue beneath.

November

Hope continues to show good progress. Over the last few weeks, we have seen significant improvements in her shell injury and the area around her missing front right flipper. Although the shell is still delicate and both sites continue to heal, we are seeing plenty of healthy tissue laid down. We will continue to monitor and debride these injuries as needed over the coming month. Otherwise, Hope appears active with an enthusiastic appetite.

December

Hope continues to improve, with further healing progress in the injured areas of her carapace. These areas remain delicate, but the healthy tissue has expanded and hopefully will continue to do so. Additionally, we have observed an increase in frequency of diving attempts from Hope, both with and without active encouragement at feeding times. Her appetite remains consistently high although she still struggles with depth perception.

January 2025 Updates

Hope’s carapace was debrided on 16 January, removing dead tissue from remaining pockets. The remainder of her carapace has further improved, with increased deposition of keratin over the bone-deficient areas.

February

Hope’s carapace has shown further improvement, with only very small locations still requiring debridement. The majority of bone-deficient areas have hardened further, although there is still a soft pink patch near her right shoulder. Hope also managed to retrieve food from the bottom of the white tank for the first time, though her buoyancy at rest has not significantly improved.

March

Hope’s carapace is fully healed, and debridement is no longer required. Buoyancy issues persist, and food retrieval from the tank floor is inconsistent. External weight therapy and a sea pen transfer are planned next month, in an attempt to reduce her buoyancy.

April

Hope was transferred to the sea pen on 19 April, as she was demonstrating frustration at being in the small white tank and was attempting to dive. She has adapted well to her new environment, after a short adjustment period sharing space with Thari. Her buoyancy remains severe and uneven, but we are hoping to see improvements in the coming weeks.

Updates – May

On 22 May, we brought Hope back to the Rehabilitation Center after time in the sea pen. She remains positively buoyant but displays good energy. In the sea pen, Hope obtained some wounds to the top of her carapace—these were observed once she was brought back to the Rehabilitation Centre. The wounds are cleaned regularly.

June

Hope remains positively buoyant. We are continuing to take care of the carapace wounds, which are healing well. She still has lots of energy and is eating well with a healthy appetite.

July

Hope continues to be positively buoyant but has a lot of energy and a good appetite. The wounds are still extensive, but they are doing very well with more healthy tissue each time we clean and debride them.

August

Hope’s wounds are healing very well. Despite maintaining positive buoyancy, she has a lot of energy and is eating properly.

September

Hope has plenty of energy, but is still very buoyant and unable to dive. Her wounds are healing well, and improvements have been noticeable since treatments began, with almost no scar tissue remaining. We are now waiting for her carapace to regenerate as much as possible – see photos, below, taken several weeks apart.

October Updates

Hope’s wounds have completely healed, and no scar tissue is currently present. As a result, we have reduced the frequency of interventions to minimize stress. It can be observed that keratinization is increasing beneath the pink tissue (visible as the darker areas), which will make the carapace harder in the affected regions.

November

The keratinisation process of the wound on Hope’s carapace continues to progress, and is steadily strengthening in the affected regions. Her buoyancy remains positive; however, she continues to show high energy and good activity levels.

December

Hope’s condition remains stable and unchanged.

January 2026 Updates

Hope’s condition remains stable, and the carapace injuries continue to heal appropriately.

February – June

Hope’s condition remains stable, and the carapace injuries continue to heal appropriately.

July

Hope’s condition remains stable. We are currently preparing a custom neoprene harness that will allow weights to be attached in an effort to improve her buoyancy and swimming ability, and to assess whether this supports further improvement in her condition.