Funds have been raised for sea turtle conservation with a sponsored row-a-thon.

Staff at Brighton Sea Life Centre and Real Gap, a student travel company, took part in a four-day, 183-mile challenge over the bank holiday weekend using rowing machines.

All the money raised will be donated to the Sea Life Trust. The distance the staff and other team members travelled is one tenth of the distance some green turtles travel every year between feeding grounds off Brazil to nesting beaches in the Ascension Islands.

The challenge coincided with World Turtle Day on Saturday, which the Sea Life Centre marked in honour of its residents Lulu and Gulliver, two of the world’s oldest captive sea turtles.

They were re-homed in Brighton in 2002 and 2003 after living at the Blackpool Tower Aquarium. They were originally imported as hatchlings more than 70 years ago to appear in a television commercial.