Visiting Veterinarian Program in Maldives

The ORP Marine Turtle Rescue Center is located on Dhuni Kolhu island in Baa Atoll, a 30-minute sea plane ride north of Male, the capital of the Maldives. Baa Atoll consists of 75 islands, only 13 of which are inhabited. 13 additional islands are operated as island resorts. Baa atoll is rich in biodiversity with plenty of sea turtles, manta rays, hard and soft coral, and a huge variety of reef fish species.

The Olive Ridley Project was established to actively fight ghost nets in the Indian Ocean. We physically remove ghost nets, promote recycling of end-of-life fishing nets, offer marine and turtle conservation education programs and carry out research. In addition we provide veterinary care, protection, treatment and security for turtles found entangled and injured. We operate a Marine Turtle Rescue Centre in Baa Atoll, Maldives, and run one of the largest sea turtle photo-ID databases in the world. Y

The Olive Ridley Project rely on donations and grants for funding. We therefore depend of volunteers and citizen scientists for much of our work. If you are a qualified veterinarian looking for a once in a lifetime adventure, we might be looking for you! ORP now offers a Visiting Veterinarian Program at our Marine Turtle Rescue Centre in Baa Atoll, Maldives.

The ORP Visiting Veterinarian Program provides a unique opportunity for qualified veterinarians specialising in exotic medicine from around the world to obtain hands on experience working with wild sea turtles in a tropical location. This is an exceptional chance for veterinarians that are specialising in exotic medicine, working towards a specific field that may benefit the veterinary care of sea turtles, or are able to facilitate the rescue centre’s continuous improvements. They must be willing to share their knowledge in key areas with our Resident Veterinarian in a CPD-like manner.

We treat injured sea turtles rescued from across the Maldives; they reach us by speed boat and sea planes. Most of our turtle patients have been found entangled in ghost gear or other marine debris. We also have patients who have been found floating, sick, injured from boat strikes or fishing hooks, and some that we suspect have been kept as pets. Olive ridley turtles make up the biggest patient numbers.

在第一个两年的操作我们对待68你rtle patients and successfully released 30 turtles back into the ocean. The majority of our patients were olive ridley turtles (85%), out of which 80% were ghost gear victims. The most common damage caused by ghost nets are flipper injuries and buoyancy issues.