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Tharushi was the second turtle to be tagged in Sri Lanka and was tagged after her 7th nest of the 2006 season. Both the local Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) Ranger Mr Goonatunga and the Turtle Conservation Project (TCP) Science Officer Lalith Ekanayake who assisted with the tag attachment have daughters named Tharushi, hence the name. For those tourists that were present during most of the tagging but left before we named her, this is the turtle we thought had satellite tag no. 57666! After she was tagged, Tharushi nested again on the 19.08.06 before starting her post-nesting migration.
Tharushi's tag was supported by a grant from the UK Government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as a contribution to the Indian Ocean and South East Asian (IOSEA) Year of the Sea Turtle 2006.
TCP Science Officer Lalith Ekanayake (in pale shirt) and local DWC Ranger Mr Goonatunga (to the right of Lalith in the hat) celebrate naming Tharushi after their daughters with the rest of the tagging team and some tourists who got more than they bargained for when they took part in the TCP's Rekawa turtlewatch.
