Leila glides through the clear water in her healing tank. Her flippers propel her toward a scrap of lettuce and as she surfaces to claim her meal, her shell glimmers beneath the sunshine. This green sea turtle is just one of hundreds of rescued turtles that have been nurtured back to health in the nine tanks at Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre (CTRC) on Fitzroy Island, just a short stroll through the bush from the island’s sole resort. “CTRC has been around since 2000,” says marine biologist and master reef guide Azri Saparwan. “Since then, we have attended to injuries ranging from entanglement to ‘floater syndrome’, but most are due to anthropogenic impacts.”
In mid-2017, Leila
