To say the turtle was wrapped in fishing line would be an understatement
Diving on a patch reef in the Florida Keys about a month ago, I came across this turtle. It swam right up to me and my dive buddy. To say he was wrapped up in fishing line would be an understatement. The turtle had fishing line coming out of his mouth, which wrapped around his front left flipper 40+ times, which wrapped around his back left flipper many times. We sat there for about 10 minutes
with the turtle. The turtle became even more comfortable with us by this point. Now that we gained his trust, I started cutting off some of the fishing line. Unfortunately, the fishing line was extensively wrapped around the turtle, and I was only able to remove a small portion. Eventually, the turtle and I mutually realized that we couldn’t help anymore. We looked at each other for a bit, feeling pretty helpless, then we parted ways.
Fortunately, in the Florida Keys, there is a place called The Turtle Hospital. They rescue, rehab, and release injured and sick sea turtles. Unfortunately, in this instance, it is a big ocean and our friend in this photo was long gone before he could be safely transported to care.
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