Founder, Director and Trustee
Dr. Claire Petros is a sea turtle veterinarian who studied Biological Sciences at Oxford University before completing veterinary medicine at the University of Bristol. During her time at Bristol, she immersed herself in wildlife and exotic medicine.
She also travelled to North Carolina, USA, to experience working for the Turtle Rescue Team and sea turtle medicine. It was only after volunteering for Ocean Spirits in Grenada and witnessing stunning leatherback turtles nesting that her desire to work with sea turtles as a veterinarian was sparked.
Dr. Petros has been working for the Olive Ridley Project since 2016, and helped set up the first sea turtle veterinary clinic in the Maldives. She was their lead veterinarian and managed the rescue and rehabilitation until 2023. Dr. Petros is also a Sea Turtle consultant for the Swiss NGO OceanCare since 2018, and is focussing her research on Aquatic Wildmeat in the Indian Ocean. Claire’s work with OceanCare instigated the foundation for the creation of STRA, with their support and funding this exciting venture has now been made a reality. Claire started her PhD at the University of Oxford in September 2021, focussing on ‘Using the behavioural sciences to tackle the illegal consumption of sea turtles in the Maldives’.
Dr Petros has presented at international conferences such as CMS Cop12, Global Ghost Gear Initiative and the International Sea Turtle Symposium on issues such as marine debris and ghost net entanglements of turtles. As well as her desire to care for the marine world, Dr. Petros is a keen diver, paddle-boarder and swimmer and is often found swimming with turtles when she has the opportunity to or between islands in the Maldives!