Luchi

juvenile Olive Ridley turtle (RB.LO.196), admitted 25 January 2020, Voavah, Baa Atoll, Maldives

Weight / Length: 10.1kg / 44.8cm (on admission);

Luchi, a female Olive Ridley, was found entangled in a ghost net outside Voavah (Four Seasons Private Island), by one of our marine biologists and guests during a dolphin cruise.

She was found floating, covered in algae and tightly entangled in the net. Her left front flipper was missing and already healed, but her right back flipper presented a very deep wound from the net and was very swollen.

Luchi was given a freshwater bath for re-hydration and a good clean upon arrival. Her wounds were tended to and treatment was given. She is currently not resting on the bottom of the pool, so she will need to regain her diving strength. We are hoping that her flipper injury will heal soon so she can head back to the ocean where she belongs.

Updates March 2020

The Liang family, guests of Four Seasons who were present during Luchi’s rescue on the Chinese New Year, have made a generous donation towards our turtle conservation program.
We plan to use the donation to develop our Maldives sea turtle satellite-tracking project, to purchase new tracking devices to follow the journeys of some of our rehabilitated turtles once they are released back into the ocean. We are very grateful to Mr Liang, and thank him most sincerely for such a kind donation to our rehabilitation centre.

Throughout February, Luchi’s wounds were continuously tended to and she was put on a course of antibiotics to prevent any infection. Gradually, her black flipper started to heal and regained full movement again. Her strength and energy returned to normal, and she started to dive down below the water surface, and rest on the bottom of her recovery pool. These are clear indications that she is able to dive for her own food in the wild again, so now we can release her back to the ocean where she belongs!

Luchi was successfully released on 5 March 2020, from the beach just outside our Marine Discovery Centre, and she was waved on her way by a small group of enthusiastic supporters. Bon voyage, little guy! 🙂