\n Channelling my inner David Attenborough, I met Lukas Weller, an enthusiastic senior aquarist who worked at the Bournemouth Oceanarium for three years, who took me to feed the beautiful 15-year-old sea turtle.\n<\/p>\n
\n On the menu Monday afternoon was mackerel and prawns, weighed and monitored to an exact amount to ensure Carrie maintains a healthy weight.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lukas helped me to feed Carrie mackerel and prawns which she chowed down on in not time at all (Image: NQ)\n<\/p>\n
\n We took out a \u201ctarget\u201d \u2013 a pole with a yellow hoop on the end \u2013 to coax Carrie along for her food, which Lukas said would attract her attention immediately as she is \u201cvery food motivated\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This is really important for her,” Lukas said of using the target to feed the turtle.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Not only for her mental well-being, but also for the convenience of vet visits as well,” said Lukas.\n<\/p>\n
\n Standing tank side of \u201cShark Wreck Reef\u201d Lukas showed me how to guide Carrie towards her lunch.\n<\/p>\n
\n Carrie the loggerhead sea turtle (Image: NQ)\n<\/p>\n
\n In no time at all Carrie spotted the submerged yellow hoop and meandered along to me and Lukas and snatched up the seafood in no time.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The target training is something we do every day,” my guide said.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It\u2019s just one part of her enrichment plan alongside other training that we do with her.”\n<\/p>\n
\n He added: “The feeding experiences are really beneficial for young children that love animals and sea turtle.\n<\/p>\n
\n “They get this close up experience and help inspire the next generations of conversationists.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Lukas Weller, senior aquarist at Bournemouth Oceanarium (Image: NQ)\n<\/p>\n
\n Once the feeding was done, we used the feeding claw to scratch Carrie shell to show her feeding time was over.\n<\/p>\n
\n One of the benefits of the feeding experience is getting up close and personal with a loggerhead sea turtle, something which is very rare to encounter in the wild.\n<\/p>\n
\n Loggerheads are large marine reptiles, named for their oversized heads and powerful jaws which they use to crush hard\u2011shelled prey like crabs and clams.\n<\/p>\n
\n They live in warm and temperate oceans all around the world and can grow to around 90 cm in shell length and 115 kg in weight, typically living for more than 50 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I\u2019ve always loved animals,” said Lukas.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I\u2019ve always loved caring for them and I also love interacting with the public.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It\u2019s really nice to be able to educate people in these animals and give them the opportunity to connect with animals,” said Lukas.\n<\/p>\n
\n Carrie has been at the aquarium for more than a decade and remains a favourite among visitors and shares a tank with nine reef sharks.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ahead of the feeding experience, Lukas showed me the inner workings of the oceanarium, where seawater is pumped directly from the ocean on the site\u2019s doorstep.\n<\/p>\n
\n Once filtered for debris and algae and treated, the water supports the penguins and other saltwater life in the oceanarium.\n<\/p>\n
\n Feeding experiences with Carrie, penguins, blacktip reef sharks, otters, and rays are available to the public at Oceanarium throughout the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Channelling my inner David Attenborough, I met Lukas Weller, an enthusiastic senior aquarist who worked at the Bournemouth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-680257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}