Project Personnel

Project Personnel

Adhith Swaminathan

Positions: Research Assistant – Biodiversity and Resource Monitoring Programme

Qualifications: 

M.Sc. Marine Environmental Management, University of York, UK, 2009.

B.Sc. Visual Communication, Madras University, Chennai, 2007.

Profile: I have been fascinated by the marine environment, sea turtles in particular, since the age of 10. Over the last 17 years I have been a part of the Students Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTCN), India’s oldest non-profit organisation working towards the conservation of sea turtles along the coast of Chennai, India. With what started off as a passion, I went on to pursue a career in studying and conserving sea turtles and the marine environment.

Since completing my masters, I have been working with Dakshin as a part of two of India’s longest ongoing sea turtle research projects based in Orissa and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands respectively. I worked as a researcher in one of the three mass nesting sites named Rushikulya, Orissa, India conducting mass nesting census over two consecutive nesting seasons from 2008-2010.

I have been working on a Leatherback sea turtle monitoring project based in Little Andaman of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India since 2010. The project was initiated in 2007 to study the nesting recovery of the leatherback turtles post the tsunami and earthquake of 2004, which devastated the Islands.

Since 2007, almost 100 leatherback turtles have been tagged and since 2010  the project has also involved satellite tagging of a few turtles each year to study of the migratory route undertaken post nesting.

Previous  Experience:
My masters’ dissertation was on the effects of modernisation on Olive Ridley sea turtles and as part of my course I also participated in the longest ongoing sea turtle research and conservation program in the world organised by the Sea Turtle Conservancy. I conducted my first
independent research project during my time in Tortuguero, Costa Rica, and produced a report titled “Nesting trends of Leatherback and Green Turtles –Tortuguero, Costa Rica (1998-2007)”.

 

Projects:

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