The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi's species conservation fund has given a University of Western Sydney PhD student a grant for her work to help save the Bellinger River Snapping Turtle.

The Mohamed Bin Zayed Fund was set up in 2008 to provided targeted grants to conserve threatened and endangered species worldwide.

Research student Kristen Petrov said the fund had given her a $16,000 grant to continue work on the critically endangered NSW North Coast turtle, which was almost wiped out by a mass mortality event last year.

"I had to answer a series of different questions," Miss Petrov said.

"They wanted a really quick rundown of what the project might entail, really focused in on the species I was looking at and where that species is within the world.

"Obviously with the Bellinger River Snapping Turtle, it's only found in the Bellinger River.

"So I think that in itself really kind of blew their minds a little bit, that we've potentially lost this species from that river."

Mysterious disease kills off turtles

A number of distressed and dead Bellinger River Snapping Turtles (Myuchelys georgesi) were found by canoeists in the Bellinger River, NSW, in February 2015.

The entire distribution of Bellinger River Snapping Turtles experienced a mass mortality event, where individual turtles were found to be dead or dying.

The event was due to a mysterious disease that caused the turtles to be malnourished and immunocompromised, with most displaying symptoms of blindness and growths around their eyes.

The Bellinger River Snapping Turtle only exists along a 25km stretch of the Bellinger River.

Before the mass mortality event, the turtle population was estimated at 1500-4500 individuals.

With more than 500 individuals affected by the disease, and mortality rates at 100 per cent, the species is now at greater risk of extinction.

Bringing turtle back from the brink

Miss Petrov said the grant would help her try to determine the species population size and demographic structure.

"Really it's just going to be about conserving the Bellinger River Snapping Turtle and bringing it back from the brink of extinction," she said.

"Next week I'm part of a team led by the Office Of Environment and Heritage which will be conducting population surveys on the river.

"They'll have a team of snorkelers, there's also another gentlemen that does turtle trapping, to see how many we find.

"We will be recording the numbers of females, males and juveniles, that sort of thing."