January & February 2024 Maldives AMC Blog

My second month in the Maldive's has been as busy as my first! My work in the marine centre has been very varied but very similar at the same time. I've become a lot more confident in my role, but still feel like I'm very new and am learning every day. Mornings every day are spent mostly in the centre with the volunteers doing morning centre duties and the afternoons consist of a range of activities with volunteers or daily admin I have to complete. Recently we welcomed Karen to the team as the other Marine Biolgist, she has just joined mid February and I'm looking forward to sharing some of the workload with her! 

I've included some of the highlights of the end of January and then February below: On the 19th January we hosted a community beach clean, 60 members of the community joined us included many of the local scouts which was really lovely! 

At the end of January we recieved one adult turtle admission. A hawksbill turtle found floating and very emaciated by Cocoon resort. The turtle was missing his left front flipper, but it was noted that this was an old healed injury. He was also incredible emaciated and very weak. Gabi also noticed the turtle had a Plastrocarapacial bridge fracture (meaning the plastron was separating from the carapace). Unfortunately the injuries the turtle had sustained were incredibly serious and he passed away just 24 hours after being brought to our care. 

On the 24th January our volunteers and staff (alongside our partners at Aqua Dive) assisted with our first first coral collection and planting session of 2024! 🪸🤿🙌In total we managed to repopulate 4 of our artificial reef frames with almost 40 new fragments! To repopulate our coral frames our volunteers collected corals of opportunities (fragments found opportunistically), from three coral genera: Porites Spp., Acropora Spp. and Pocillopora Spp. Fragments were collected from depths of between 2-6m to give them to best chance of thriving at our coral garden. It was really interesting to learn more about coral restoration from Jay, and to be involved in the collection and planting out of the corals. The day started with a coral snorkel to collect fragments of opportunity (fragments which have broken off other corals). Then once all the fragments were collected those of us who are qualified divers switched to scuba gear and scuba dived to attach the fragments to the frames. I was buddied up with Gabi and she would hand me coral fragments and zip ties and I would attach them to the frame. 

The end of January also marked the beginning of a new project to expand the marine centre, to provide more space for the adult turtles in our care. One of our old tanks was demolished and the new larger tank has begun construction. Now nearly at the end of February the first new tank is almost finished, with just the glass waiting to be put in. 

Whislt the new tanks being constructed some of our turtles had to be put out in the floating marine centre to make space. This means we had to snorkel out to feed them daily. 

On my birthday we recieved on hatchling from a local who had been keeping it as a pet. Unfortunately it had a deformed carapace from being mishandled and passed away just a few days later. In February we received a total of 9 green sea turtle hatchlings and two adult olive ridley turtles to our centre. The hatchlings were found by construction workers (stuck in a dug out trench) on a nearby island where a new resort is being constructed, after a nest had hatched a few days before. The hatchlings were monitored for a day and were seen to be fit and healthy, and were diving well. So the decision was made to release them that night. 

Saimaa is an olive ridley turtle that was found entangled by guests of Kanuhura resort in Lhaviyani atoll, Maldives. She was first brought to our centre for immediate first aid care, before transport could be arranged to our friends over at Olive Ridley Project, Coco Palm two days later. Following her arrival at ORP Saimaa has undergone a comprehensive health assessment. Saimaa suffered a partial amputation of her right front flipper, and further traumatic injuries to her carapace, right hind flipper, and right eye. She is underweight, anaemic (which is likely due to the traumatic loss of her flipper) and is suffering from a serious blood infection. Currently Saimaa is receiving medical therapy and pain relief. I hope she does well in her rehabilitation journey at ORP‘s facilities. 

Hadhiyaa is an olive ridley turtle that was found entangled near You & Me resort by Cora Cora dive team. Unfortunately, her left front flipper is missing due to the entanglement injury. She was brought into our centre on the 20th February. After primary examination our vet determined that the wound is healing well, a small part of the broken bone is still exposed and we will monitor her to decide the best course of action. We have also observed that she is really active in the water, swimming well and her breathing pattern is normal. Hopefully she will continue to do well and learn to dive without her flipper soon. 

This month Dua and I also began our Atoll Ecologists ‘Marine Science‘ sessions at Lh. Atoll Education Centre, Hinnavaru. This programme consists of 12 sessions focussed on the Marine Science and aims to educate local children on the current issues that the marine environment faces. For our first session of this term we covered a short introduction to Marine science, as well as some basic Fish ID and ended with a game of Fish Bingo which the students really enjoyed! Our second session last week focussed on the Marine Environment and habitats seen in the Maldives. I am excited to continue to engage with these students, and contribute to community outreach and marine conservation awareness through the delivery of these sessions over the next few months. Next weeks session is on sea turtles! 

On Thursday 6th February we took Cora for the first seaswim of 2024! Cora is a double front flipper amputee and unfortunately cannot be released, we are able to provide enrichment to him by taking him into the sea for a sea swim! I was really excited to get the chance to do this. It was a very surreal experience. We transported Cora using the 'hammock' method for moving him, by carrying him in a towel to the beach. Dua then pushed Cora further out to sea and then we let him drift around on his own, keeping our distance as much as possible. After about 40 minutes we brought Cora back in, and I got to guide Cora back in, it felt very weird pushing him along in the water, but it was so nice to see him looking around at all the fish and the reef below. I made a video which is on the Atoll Marine centre Instagram of the sea swim. 

On the 23rd Feburary we also carried out a beach clean up on nearby uninhabited island Veyvah with our family package volunteers from One The Island Guest House. 

Kamana is the olive ridley turtle who was admitted to the centre the same day I arrived on Naifaru. We've had some really exciting progress with her rehabilitation recently. She was responding well to her targeted weight therapy and started sleeping on the bottom of her tank and diving for food. Because of this Gabi lowered the weight to reduce the amount of weight she needed. We were planning to change her to a lighter weight this week but when we came into the centre that day we found Kamana had knocked her weight off completely and was still sleeping on the bottom! The decision was then made to take Kamana out to the floating marine centre for the last stage of rehabilitation! This week we have been snorkelling out to feed her daily, she has been doing amazingly and is sleeping and resting on the bottom of the floating marine centre with no weights! Hopefully this means she can be released soon. (UPDATE: She was released early March,  more details in March blog).

My friend Charlotte also came and visited me for my birthday week, arriving on the 30th Jan and leaving on the 8th February. It was really lovely to have her visit. On my birthday I showed her the marine centre duties in the morning and in the afternoon we went to one of the nearby uninhabited islands for a chilled afternoon. Then in the evening we had a beach bbq with all the volunteers, what a lovely way to spend my 25th Birthday! Whilst Charlotte was here we also went Kayaking, had an excursion day to kuredu Resort on the Saturday and went out for dinner on the island, it was a nice change of scenary actually. 

This path month I have also managed to pack in a few dives which I've really enjoyed. On the 23rd January I went diving with Grace, Dana and Jay to Kuredu Caves (also known as Turtle Airport). We saw lots of sharks, seven turtles, eagle rays and sting rays! It was a super amazing dive, sleeping turtles everywhere! On the 28th January I also went diving with Jay, Alina, Gabi, Dua and Grace for Alina's last dive before she left on the 30th Jan. We went to Naifaru caves and We saw a huge Nurse shark sleeping in one of the cavey areas which was really cool. On the 9th February Grace had her rescue diver training scenario. I acted as victim 'lost unrepsonsive diver'. This meant that Grace had to rescue me from the water whilst the rest of the volunteers played different parts to try and distract her such as distressed mother, annoying tourist etc. It was a really funny afternoon and Grace passed with flying colours. On the 15th Feburary I also did my first night dive in the sea with Mickayla, David, Grace and Jay! My only other night dive was in a quarry in Plymouth so this was much cooler! I saw a parrot fish sleeping in its mucus bubble, I've wanted to see that in person for forever! So I was very excited about that. Then on the 18th February I went diving with Grace, Dua, Jay and Gabi for Grace's farewell dive. We went to Manta point but unfortunately didn't see any Manta rays. It was a really lovely dive though, one of my favourites actually. It was just really chilled and relaxed. I enjoyed looking at the fish on the reef and just relaxing being underwater. I'm sad Grace has left, she was the last volunteer here that was here before me. She was a huge help with helping to get me up to speed with everything here and I'm really grateful for all her help.

Recently Grace, Gabi, Amy and I also all went and got dresses made to measure at a tailor shop here which we were very excited about. I got an orange one made, Grace's is green, Gabi's is burgundy and Amy's is Navy. 

 In February I have also been lucky enough to do a lot more snorkelling with Manta Rays! I think I have snorkelled with them a total of five times now. With the last time being the most magical experience ever. There were 9 manta's all around us, coming from all directions! At one point I was watching three ahead of me and suddenly two massive ones swam right underneath me!

On the 28th February we also had another Coral planting day with the volunteers. I was with resort guests giving them a tour of the centre so I wasn't able to be involved in the Coral collecting and planting, but I got to see the frames before they were added to the coral garden. This time the corals weren't planted under water, but out of water with entire new frames being added to the garden.