Nadia

All Turtle Patients

Meet Nadia

Nadia is an adult female olive ridley sea turtle, who was found in Baa atoll.

Intake Date: 12 February 2017
Length: 59 cm
Weight: 15 kg
Status: Released 24th December 2018

Nadia was been adopted by Oriana Malaika Zweifel and by Lorna Hutchings for Layla Phillips

 

 

Nadia, a ghost net victim, arrived with an injured front right flipper and severe lacerations to her neck. We tried to save her flipper, but unfortunately we had to eventually remove it.

After successfully recovering from surgery at the Rescue Centre, she was taken to Juvenile Naifaru for further rehabilitation on May 13 2017. Nadia suffered from buoyancy syndrome and was unable to dive.

In September 2018 she was finally spotted spending time at the bottom of the tank! She returned to us to spend some time in our large tank to further improve her buoyancy and hopefully get her ready for release.

Upon her return, Nadia was initially very buoyant; it is likely that the long boat journey to the Rescue Centre stressed her out, worsening the buoyancy. She did not manage to dive down after food at all. She also had a very swollen eye, which had been a problem over the last year. We treated her with eye ointment, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory and vitamin supplementation.

After a couple of months back the the Rescue Centre, Nadia was diving well in her tank and was frequently spotted resting at the bottom. We started taking her for swimming lessons in the ocean to try to improve her buoyancy and give her some exercise. However, each time she would become tired and start floating to the surface.

Finally, on December 24th, she showed no signs of buoyancy problems. We swam with her for a while to ensure she was not popping up to the surface. And then she suddenly disappeared off the edge of the reef!

We are so happy she is back home after almost two years in rehabilitation. It was the best Christmas gift we could have asked for!