First Month in the Maldives as a Marine Biologist at a Sea turtle Rehab centre with Atoll Marine Conservation Centre!

I started writing this blog on the first day of the new year. Back at this time last year I had no idea I would be bringing in the new year in the Maldives! But here we are! I've now been on Naifaru for a whole month! How time is already flying!

Some highlights of my first month have been meeting and getting to know the turtles, snorkelling with a manta ray and taking samples turtle for an X-ray at the hospital! 

I am living on Naifaru, which is the captial Island of the Lhaviyani Atoll (North of Male). It is a local island rather than a private or resort island so it is very conservative and we must have out Knees, shoulders and everything inbetween covered at all times. This mean we swim in leggings and rash vests most of the times, we are allowed to wear swimming costumes and bikinis when we go on excursions to uninhabited islands though. 

I left the UK on the 14th December, only two months after leaving Ascension Island. The travelling to get here was quite the journey. We flew from London City airport to Frankfurt before a long 7 hour layover until our flight from Frankfurt to Male International. 

Once arriving in Male we then had a 4 hour wait until our ferry to Naifaru. It was a very hot and sticky wait for the ferry! The speadboat ferry was also a wild rild, it took 3 hours to get from Male to Naifaru and the entire journey was like a rollercoaster ride, the waves were so big we were flying up and down crashing onto the sea jolting and maintaining serious air time between drops. It wasn't the smoothest journey by boat I've ever experienced! 

When we finally arrived we felt very jangled and ready for an early night. We were greeted by Janneke (Volunteer coordinator), Gabi (Vet), Kanma (Boss), Alina (Marketing manager intern for the guest house) and a couple of the current volunteers. They showed us my accomodation in the staff house where I did a little bit of unpacking, and also to the guest house where my mum stayed for the week. We then showered and went to dinner with the volunteers before having an early night. 

The next day was a Saturday which is Excursion day for staff and volunteers. This week it had been planned to go on an excursion to one of the nearest resort islands 'Kuredu' which have a partnership with Atoll Marine so that we can do day visits every so often. We all met at the harbour at 10:00am ready to leave for Kuredu. The speedboat journey took us about 20 minutes and was a lot smoother than our experience the day before which we were very glad of. Alina showed us where to sign in as day guests and then showed us to the area we would use as our base for the day. Immediately we all got our snorkelling gear on and headed straight out into the ocean. 

I was so excited to get into the sea and do some snorkelling. The water was so clear! I also saw 4 green turtles within a couple minutes of being in the water which was so cool, and loads of fish that I now need to learn the names off. We swam quite far out and saw a wreck as well as a huge turtle in the shallows as we headed back to the beach. My mum and I then went for a walk along the beach and down to a sand bar at the far end of the island with a sea swing and where the huts in the sea were located. For lunch I had a Pizza, which was really good, and then we went for a swim in the swimming pool and chilled out for the afternoon. One thing we kept doing was watching all of the little hermit crabs on the beach! And the huge fruitbats in the palmtrees flying around all day!

 

Later in the afternoon we noticed the staff setting up a christmas cake mixing event where they put a huge mixing area for christmas cake mix in the middle and decorated the are for Christmas. There was also some free food and sweet treat on offer. In the evening they had a Maldivian night event for guests, with a video about Maldivian Culture, they then had some traditional Maldivian dancers and also showed guests how coconuts are husked and how to make palm leaf fishes. We were due to be picked up around 10pm and so a little before that we went to the pier to see if we could see any wildlife at night. 

We managed to see a few Eagle Rays, a small devil ray and lots of small black tip reef sharks swimming about in the light at the end of the pier! So amazing! 

The next day I have my induction in my work at the centre. At the moment we have eight turtles at the centre (7 Olive Ridleys and 1 Green turtle). I'll do another post about the turtle's we have at the centre, and sea turtles in the Maldives so you can read all about them if you're interested. we start centre duties at 9:30am every day and work in the centre until 1pm (lunch time). The longer term volunteers were really great at showing me round, explaining the morning tasks and showing me how everything is done. I'll just include the basics here, maybe I'll do another post that explains centre duties in more detail in the future. 

Each tank needs to be netted out (remove any large debris, poo, uneaten food), swept (to sweep as much dirt out) and have a water change. Food needs to be defrosted, weighed out and portioned for each turtle (they are fed a certain amount based on their weight), water temperatures are recorded, salinity of each tank is measured, sea grass needs to be collected for Hope (our green turtle), enrichment needs to be cleaned and the turtles need to be fed. I have split the tasks into tank duties and centre duties to keep track of everything that needs to be done every morning.

 

Tank Duties: Sweeping tanks Water changes Water temperatures Collecting new palm leaves Cleaning enrichment Adding any new enrichment Cleaning hopes seagrass holder Turtle carapace scrubs as needed 

Centre duties: Food prep (Defrost, Weigh out and Write on slate) Collect Seagrass Feed turtles Recording feeding notes Putting towels in wash Hanging up any wet towels Folding any dry towels Raking centre floor Tidying centre Washing up tubs Brush down benches in Presentation room

 

On top of this, every other day (Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday) at 10:30am we have resort guests from Kanifushi resort who come for a presentation and tour of the centre. My first few weeks one of our long term volunteers (Tom) was giving these presentations,as well as our local interns Audha and Dua. Now that I have been here longer I have also started to give them as well. Every other week is tank cleaning week, when each day one tank is fully drained, scrubbed, bleached and cleaned. Every other week is also turtle weighing and scrubbing week, with each second weighing week also being measuring day as well.

 

In the afternoon I do admin work such as answering emails, sending adoption emails, assisting with the newsletter, helping write proposals for partnerships, social media, creating presentations, sorting school syllabus, writing invoices (as well as lots of other admin) etc. 

 During my first week we received a new turtle at the centre on the day I arrived (Kamana) and one the day after I arrived (Redhan), we also recieved three hatchlings during my first week as well. Unfortunately one of the hatchlings didn't make it but the other two (Pancake and Syrup), were released back into the ocean after they started eating and diving after a couple of days.

 

Hiccup (our closest to being released turtle) was also moved out to the Floating Marince centre (an outside enclosure in the open sea with 5 sections). We would snorkel out to feed him every day. He was diving well for food, but was still spending a lot of time at the surface when we were there, and when he wasn't feeding so isn't quite ready for release. The weather also started to get bad and the currents were strong so we couldn't get out to feed him every day. The decision was made last week to bring him back to the centre for a little bit until the bad weather subsides. When we first brought him back he was diving and swimming underwater really well. Unfortunately this week Hiccup has been struggling to dive again, floating back to the surface quite a bit which is a real shame. We are hoping he will be able to progress back to diving well soon.

 

A new activity in the volunteer calendar is that they're going to try and have a Beach BBQ every other week. I've had two since I've been here and we're due to have one tomorrow actually. They're really lovely! 

My second excursion on my second weekend was a snorkel from a boat and then we were taken to one of the close by uninhabited islands to chill for a while which was a really nice day. 

Christmas here was very differen't. We were allowed to celebrate really, because the Maldive's is a Muslim country but we scheduled an extra excursion on Christmas Day and went to an uninhabited island closest to Naifaru called Veyvah. We were meant to have a special Maldivian Night dinner in the evening but there was a miscommunication with our Boss and he forgot to ask the kitchen so we had noodles for dinner instead.

 

Christmas Eve was also the day that we went with the volunteers for a tour of the waste management area on Naifaru. It was really sad to see actually. None of the waste is seperated, everything is piled all together and burnt. Over 90% of the Maldives is without proper waste management infrastructure. It's a huge problem here and very humbling to see in person. 

At the centre we are partnered with Parley who we collect plastic bottles for a send them off island to recycle into things like clothes, but there is a long way to go in order to solve the waste problem in the Maldives. 

The week including the 28th December we had three families arrive at the centre for a week of Family Volunteering. They each had three mornings at the centre with us, helping to clean tanks and do the usual morning centre duties. We also ran an upcycling afternoon with them, took them for a beach clean on Veyvah and they joined our volunteers for activities such as movie nights and also went snorkelling when they could. Unfortunately the weather was really bad for most of the week they were here so they didn't get to do all of the excursion's they were meant to, but they seemed to enjoy their time with us. Two of the families even adopted a turtle each before leaving which was really nice.

 

On the 29th December my room mate Amy arrived. She is also from the UK and will be here for six months. She is here as Janneke's replacement as the new Volunteer coordinator and we're getting on really well which is nice! Janneke left on the 9th January. 

On New Years Eve, a few of us brought in the new year by running into the sea at midnight and watching some fireworks in the far distance from resort islands which we could just about see on the Horizon. The weather had been awful all day but it stopped raining for long enough for us to run into the sea and swim around for a while which was a fun way to start the new year. 

On the third of January we had planned to have an excursion in the afternoon. We were carrying out centre duties as normal and I was showing a new volunteer around the centre when we got a call from our boss that Manta rays had been spotted not too far from the island and that we had to leave in 30 minutes if we wanted to do the excursion in the morning to try and see them instead. I was in the middle of processing the new adoptions with the families as it was their last day, but we all quickly ran and got ready as fast as we could. When we arrived where they had been sighted, there were a couple of other boats including guests from a resort. We slowly got into the water to not cause a huge disturbance and snorkelled around a little waiting to hear if they were still near by. We then got the signal from HD (our boat captain) that he could see a Manta ahead! We made sure to be still and let the Manta swim where it wanted to, not chasing it and letting it swim by. It was such an amazing experience to be in the water with such a majestic animal! Such an amazing way to start the new year!

 

This week has marked the beginning of a lot of changes at the centre! We had to move a few turtles around and create dividers in the tanks so that one of the older tanks can be demolished to make space for new larger ones. It has been a very busy and stressful week but hopefully the new tank can be built quickly so we can move the turtles into a bigger tank with more space as soon as possible!

Today (15th January) in the afternoon, after centre duties this morning, I also went on my first dive since arriving! I was so excited to finally get into the water and scuba dive after so long. I have only managed one dive in the past three years due to the pandemic, so I was excited to do a refresher dive and refresh myself and get out in the water again. I did a few skill drills with Jay and as we were moving a little deeper she pointed forward and made the hand signal for turtle! I swam forwards and saw a really big green turtle resting on the bottom! The visibility wasn't amazing (a lot better than the UK for sure) but it was so lovely to see her, she didn't hang around for long (we made sure to keep our distance to avoid disturbing her) but Jay said it must be my good Ocean Karma, that there was a turtle there for me on my first house reef dive. We also explored the edge of the reef and went round to where the coral gardens are (which hopefully I'll do more dives on for weekly coral gardening and restoration dives) which was really nice to see. I also practiced deploying an SMB (surface marker buoy) and after an hour we ascended to the surface.