ORP Annual Review 2019-2020
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Protecting sea turtles and their habitats in the Indian Ocean ANNUAL REVIEW 2019-2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION PAGE Overview 3 Executive Summary 4 Maldives 5 Stranded Turtles 6 Turtle Rescue & Rehabilitation 7 Visiting Vets & Volunteers 9 OUR RESEARCH Sea Turtle Population Research 10 Lhaviyani Atoll 15 Laamu Atoll 17 North Malé Atoll 19 Haa Alif Research Expeditions 21 Nesting Activity 23 Kenya 24 Oman 27 Pakistan 30 Ghost Net Repurposing 32 Further Research 33 Publications 36 Education & Outreach 37 Objectives 2020-2021 41 Top Data Submitters 42 Partners & Donors 43 The Team 44 ABOUT THE OLIVE RIDLEY PROJECT The Olive Ridley Project (ORP) is a UK registered charity estaBlished in 2013. Our vision is to protect sea turtles and their haBitats in the Indian Ocean. The ORP operates in several regions of the Indian Ocean including the Maldives, Kenya, Oman and Pakistan. We focus on research, rehabilitation, education and outreach to achieve our vision. We operate a Marine Turtle Rescue Centre and a Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Centre in the Maldives. We are a team of turtle biologists, veterinarians and conservationists that use our knowledge to safeguard sea turtles and their habitats. OUR RESEARCH We have one of the largest sea turtle-ID and ghost net dataBases in the Indian Ocean. Our research areas are: • Photo-identification (population research). • Genetics / isotopes • Ocean modelling • Ghost gear modelling. • Parasitology • Turtle behaviour • Satellite tagging • Sea turtle veterinarian science OUR PARTNERS We have partnered with resorts, organisations and local NGOs around the Indian Ocean to host our rescue and rehabilitation centres, research teams, and to maximise the effectiveness of our reach in local communities. We would like to extend our gratitude for their backing, help, and support. GR462, Holiday, Lhaviyani Atoll EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The fiscal period April 2019 - March 2020 was a very Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Centre at One & Only Reethi successful year for the Olive Ridley Project (ORP) in Rah in North Malé Atoll we provided care and all aspects - until the COVID-19 outbreak in March treatment for 45 turtles and, to date, successfully 2020. It was our best ever year financially; our released 20 of these turtles back into the wild. internship and volunteer programmes ran at full capacity; our research projects made huge advances We continue to work with the fishing community of and several important research papers were published; Abdul Rehman Goth. Our aim is to continue our our turtle rehabilitation facilities expanded; and our circular economy project using ghost gear as a raw circular economy pilot project in Abdul Rehman Goth material. We hope to expand this model to other in Karachi, Pakistan, progressed in new ways. We also regions of Pakistan and, possibly, beyond. Income from expanded our research team with a turtle monitoring ghost net products made by the fishing community assistant in Kenya and a sea turtle biologist in Baa helps generate an alternative income whilst removing Atoll, Maldives. this form of pollution from the local environment. In parallel, we have firmly cemented the threat of ghost We recorded a total of 644 new individuals in the gear within the community and some fishers are now Maldives (176 green turtles, 468 hawksbill turtles), giving end-of-life fishing gear to ORP for recycling. 257 new individuals in Kenya (229 green, 28 This year, ORP reached out to a number of new local hawksbill), and 24 in Oman. (19 green, 5 hawksbill) partners in an effort to expand our impact to protect New sightings increased by 23% in the Maldives sea turtles and their habitats in the Indian Ocean. We compared to last year and this is due, in part, to our have many new research collaborations in the pipeline successful research expeditions to Haa Alif Atoll in the as well as turtle rehabilitation facilities. We also north of Maldives. We also continue to record turtle formed several new commercial partnerships in an nesting in the Maldives. During the year we monitored effort to diversify our fundraising income. a total of 94 nests: 1 olive ridley, 2 hawksbill and 91 green turtle. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 Pandemic has resulted in travel restrictions and temporary suspension on This year we reported 142 stranded sea turtles in the research and educational outreach in the areas we Maldives, of which 90% were olive ridleys. The major work. We are hopeful that we will be able to recover reasons for stranding were either entanglement in from these temporary closures and restrictions and ghost nets or cement bags, or turtles were found expand our research, education, and outreach further floating on the surface with buoyancy syndrome. We in 2021. transported 63% of the stranded turtles to rescue - Dr. Martin Stelfox, ORP CEO and Founder centres for treatment. With the opening of our second MALDIVES © Leanna Crowley One olive ridley and one hawksbill entangled entangled hawksbill one and ridley olive One in a ghostin North in net Malé Atoll TOTAL NUMBER OF STRANDED TURTLES REPORTED: 142 Olive Ridley: 128 Green : 2 Hawksbill: 12 Azura, olive ridley ghost net amputee TURTLE RESCUE & REHABILITATION The Marine Turtle Rescue Centre at Coco Palm Dhuni The Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Centre at One & Only Kolhu has progressed significantly in it’s three years Reethi Rah in North Malé Atoll opened in October plus of operation. The centre has a fully equipped 2019. This facility has one large tank and can veterinary clinic with X-ray, ultrasound and surgical accommodate up to two patients, depending on size, facilities. We have also developed a laboratory in and provides non-medical long-term rehabilitation order to culture bacteria and perform antibiotic without veterinary care, freeing up tank space for sensitivity testing as well as cytology of samples to critically injured turtle patients at the Marine Turtle be able to administer better targeted treatments for Rescue Centre. our patients. An ophthalmoscope, x-ray plates and instruments were donated to us this year by a group We treat injured sea turtles rescued from across the of guests. We continually improve our facilities Maldives. Most of our turtle patients have been through fundraising for new equipment in order to found entangled in ghost gear or other marine meet our aim of gold standard veterinary care of sea debris. We also have patients who have been found turtles. floating, sick, injured from boat strikes or fishing hooks, and some that we suspect have been kept as -Dr. Jackie Reed, ORP Veterinary Surgeon pets. TURTLE PATIENTS This Year Since Opening New Patients Admitted 39 125 Patients Treated 45 125 Turtles Released 20 70 Turtles Deceased 10 41 Patients Still in Care (ORP/Others) 10 Elba, olive ridley olive , ghost net entanglement victim , ghost entanglement net TURTLE PATIENT REASON FOR ADMITTANCE Reason for admittance by species Olive ridley turtles make up 78% of patients Patients requiring flipper amputation: 15 Average length of stay: 76 Days VISITING VETERINARIANS The ORP Visiting Veterinarian Program, launched in 2019, provides a Visiting Vet Dr. Maria Livesey unique opportunity for qualified veterinarians specialising in exotic medicine from around the world to obtain hands on experience working with wild sea turtles. We had 6 specialist vets visit the Rescue Centre with the idea that they can teach and exchange knowledge with the resident vet. For example, we had an ultrasonographer who was able to detect follicles in the female sea turtles, and a specialist at radiographs who was able to show our vet how best to take x-rays of our turtle patients. We were also able to determine that our turtle patient Heidi, who we had classed as female, is actually a male! We had to temporarily suspend the Visiting Veterinarian Program in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. -Dr. Claire Petros, ORP Lead Veterinarian “Working with the Olive Ridley Project is an experience I will never forget. I was impeccably cared for and left with a sense of great accomplishment having worked closely with many of the fantastic animals and their very dedicated veterinary team. I had the opportunity to put my clinical skills as an exotic veterinary surgeon into practice in a species that I would otherwise never get to see, let alone work closely with.” Sonya Miles, BVSc CertAVP (ZM) MRCVS, RCVS Recognised Advanced Practitioner in Zoological Medicine RESCUE CENTRE VOLUNTEERS The Rescue Centre also welcomes non-veterinarian volunteers - anyone who is interested in sea turtle conservation and husbandry. The volunteers help us care for the turtle patients and run the Rescue Centre. We launched The Rescue Centre Volunteer Program in 2017 and it is very successful, running at near 100% capacity. We welcomed 36 volunteers from 12 countries in the last year, including the winner of Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu’s “InTurtleship” competition, Jessica Monteiro, and the 2019 Rolex Scholar of Our World-Underwater Society, Kim Hildebrand. Many of our volunteers have gone on to support us with fundraisers, donations, and increasing awareness about ORP on their social media platforms. We had to temporarily suspend the Volunteer Program in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. ©Alex Mustard ©Alex SEA TURTLE POPULATION RESEARCH Photographic identification (Photo ID) is a non-invasive turtles are present in these countries; however, greens technique used to identify individual animals in a and hawksbills are the most abundant in the regions population and track them over time from natural marks where our teams operate. on the body. For sea turtles, it relies on capturing photographs of the unique patterns of scales on the Our flagship study is our Maldives project, where we animal’s face. have a 6-year data set for some atolls. We started collecting photo-ID data from Kenya in 2018 and Oman Photo ID can be used as a non-invasive alternative to in 2019, and, though it is too soon to analyse these data tagging and data may be analysed through Capture- using CMR, we hope to replicate our Maldivian Mark-Recapture (CMR) methods.