ORP Blog
Kim Hildebrandt, the 2019 Rolex Scholar of the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society, is a 3rd year Veterinary Medicine student from Germany. She spent two weeks at the Marine Turtle Rescue Centre in July 2019. She found it to be an eye-opening experience and a fantastic opportunity to gain insight in this niche field within Veterinary Medicine.
The impact of coastal and marine pollution on sea turtles come in all shapes and forms, such as sound, thermal, photic, plastics, chemical, effluent, and others. The accurate evaluation of the effects of pollutants on development, survivor ship, health, reproduction, and habitat condition/recovery is one of the main research priorities in sea turtle conservation.
Sony Miles was the first vet to join ORP’s Visiting Veterinarian Program. The aim of the program is to share skills and expertise. Sony was able to impart her knowledge as an experienced reptile vet and surgeon, whilst gaining experience with a species, in an environment, that she would never normally get the opportunity to work with or in.
Ghost gear is not the only fishing gear related threat to marine animals; bycatch is another big – and global – problem.
Bycatch happens when commercial fishers accidentally catch unwanted or unintended fish and marine creatures, and seabirds, in their fishing nets whilst fishing for a target fish species, size or sex. WWF estimates that 40% of fish caught worldwide is bycatch.
Brian Anton volunteered at the ORP Rescue Centre for a month, and it was a very eventful month indeed! He recommends anyone who loves traveling, animal medicine, and sea turtles to take advantage of this opportunity to volunteer with sea turtles. Find what Brian got up to and why he loved every minute.
ORP has removed tons of ghost gear from areas near Karachi and the fishing village of Abdul Rehman Goth. But now we have a new problem: What to do with 4 tons of ghost nets? Thanks to some creative thinking and innovative collaborations, we are now putting ghost nets to good use in various and surprising fields.
When you are looking at a sea turtle, you are usually not just looking at a single organism. Sea turtles never swim alone. Many creatures live directly on or even inside a sea turtle. As for all animals, this so-called symbiotic relationship does not have to be negative of the turtle.
We had a very special arrival recently, an incredibly rare white sea turtle. Cloud is a green sea turtle with a genetic condition called Leucism. Leucism is a condition where animals have reduced pigmentation, but different from albinism, as albino animals have a complete loss of pigmentation.
The North-East monsoon season in Maldives is peak season for ghost nets drifting into to Maldives, and along with them, entangled marine life. The team at One & Only Reethi Rah recently removed a monster ghost net in North Male Atoll, estimated to weigh between 200 and 300 kg.
As the Olive Ridley Project starts its work in Kenya, we are eager to know what are the current ghost gear impact on local marine life. With a daily presence on the diving boats of Diving the Crab Dive Centre, one of our partners in Diani beach, our team is recording and, when possible, participating in removing all visible ghost gear on the local reef.
We use cookies. For more info see our Cookie Policy
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.
