YEAR ONE The Olive Ridley Project, founded in the Maldives in 2013, attempts to identify key factors contributing to ghost net production in the Indian Ocean. WHAT ARE GHOST NETS? Ghost nets are nets that have been discarded, abandoned or lost in the ocean. SILENT KILLERS Nets will often be taken by oceanic currents and travel huge distances. This means that their detrimental effects can be prevalent far from their original point of entry into the water. They will entangle many threatened animals along the way.

MANATEES RAYS SEA BIRDS SEA TURTLES

Coral reefs can also be smothered and fouled by nets causing further loss of life. ARABIAN SEA BAY OF BENGAL

INDIA

ACTION SRI LANKA The Olive Ridley Project is working

to tackle the ghost net problem in MALDIVES the Indian Ocean using four main focus areas: Research, awareness, removal and recycling.

SEYCHELLES TURTLES 66 ENTANGLED IN GHOST NETS

1 GREEN TURTLES 4 HAWKSBILL TURTLES 61 OLIVE RIDLEY TURTLES 3 NOONU

BAA 23 3 LHAVIYANI

13 NORTH MALE

ARI 13 8 SOUTH MALE

DHAALU 2 LOCATIONS OF ENTANGLEMENTS MALDIVES

1 GAAFU ALIFU TURTLES OLIVE RIDLEYS 66 ENTANGLED IN GHOST NETS 61 ANALYSED

TURTLES FOUND ENTANGLED SEX/AGE Olive Ridley, Hawksbill and Green Olive Ridley

JAN 18

FEB 6 MALE 1 MAR 13 JUVENILE 47

APR 2 FEMALE 5 UNKNOWN 8 MAY 3

JUN 1

JUL 10

AUG 5 SEP 0 OCT 1 NOV 0 DEC 2 In its first year, the Olive Ridley Project found that 77% of turtles 77% recorded in ghost nets were juveniles. It is illegal to using nets within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Maldives, so where do the ghost nets ? we find come from?

POLE AND LINE

HANDLINE ARABIAN SEA BAY OF BENGAL

INDIA

SRI LANKA

MALDIVES

OLIVE RIDLEY TURTLES FOUND PER MONSOON SW South West MONSOON SEYCHELLES 20 ARABIAN SEA BAY OF BENGAL

INDIA

SRI LANKA

MALDIVES

Trackers on drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs) have led us to purse-seine vessels in the Western Indian Ocean. SEYCHELLES ARABIAN SEA BAY OF BENGAL

OLIVE RIDLEY TURTLES INDIA FOUND PER MONSOON

NE SRI LANKA North East MONSOON 41 MALDIVES

SEYCHELLES ARABIAN SEA BAY OF BENGAL

Ghost nets from the Maldives INDIA have being found to have the same measurements of nets used in India. Markings on bottles and floats also point to SRI LANKA a South East Asian origin. MALDIVES

SEYCHELLES PURSE-SEINE USING DFADS DRIFTING GILL NET

The illustrated here are more likely to contribute to the ghost net problem

TRAWLING Odisha

INDIA

During the North East Monsoon, tens of thousands of Olive Ridleys are on their way to and from their mass nesting event in Orissa, India. NETS NETS FOUND BY AREA 74 ANALYSED ARI 3 BAA 34 Between July 2013 - July 2014 DHAALU 2 At least 107 nets were found INDIA 12 and 74 analysed (in the NOONU 2 Maldives, India, and Sri Lanka). NORTH MALE 14 It is likely that many more RAA 1 floated by unseen. SOUTH ARI 3

SRI LANKA 3 NETS NETS FOUND PER MONTH 59 FOUND MALDIVES ONLY IN THE MALDIVES DEC 0 JAN 10

North East FEB 4 MONSOON MAR 6

APR 9

MAY 4

JUN 2 South West JUL 5 MONSOON AUG 11 SEP 5 OCT 0 NOV 3 MIN MAX AVERAGE MESH SIZE 2mm MESH SIZE 1200mm MESH SIZE 195mm

MESH SIZES (mm) of NETS WITH ENTANGLED TURTLES

35 50 72 75 80 91 115 170 180 190 241 281 295 300 350 380 385 490 510 590

The most dangerous mesh size for turtles is 35-590mm. The Olive Ridley Project is a citizen science-based project where anyone can contribute to the prevention of ghost nets. If you’re in the Indian Ocean region you can get involved by removing any ghost nets you find when or walking the beach. You can collect valuable information on the design of ghost nets and about associated marine organisms to help scientists identify where these nets are coming from.

35 mm www.oliveridleyproject.org