Turtle tangled in fishing line saved by DoE team

(CNS): On World Turtle Day, Friday 23 May, the DoE Turtle Team and Chief Conservation Officer Mark Orr managed to find and save the life of a turtle after it was badly tangled in fishing line. The rescue effort, triggered by a report about the animal being in distress, was a fitting reminder of the many dangers the modern marine environment presents for this iconic marine animal. This turtle had a lucky escape, but each year, turtles are killed by fishing line entanglement.

The team managed to locate and rescue the mature green sea turtle that was hooked in the mouth, and the line had become wrapped around one of its front flippers. He was brought onto the DoE boat and cut free from the line. Without help, he likely would not have survived, the DoE said in a social media post.

The team was also able to tag him for identification before releasing him, making him the first adult male green turtle tagged by the DoE teams. Usually, only females are tagged when they come onto the beach to nest, so this was a unique opportunity to tag an adult male turtle.

The DoE is urging fisherfolk to discard fishing line properly, and if anyone accidentally hooks a sea turtle, they should cut the line as close to the hook as possible or unhook it if it is possible to do so without damaging the turtle’s mouth.

Anyone encountering a sea turtle entangled in fishing line or in distress for any other reason is asked to report it immediately to the 24-hour Turtle Hotline on 938-NEST (6378).

World Turtle Day has been observed every year on 23 May since 2000 and is sponsored by American Tortoise Rescue to help people celebrate and protect both turtles and tortoises and their disappearing habitats. Despite being around for more than 200 million years, sea turtles are endangered. Their survival hangs in the balance, as they face a number of threats, from oceans filled with plastic to disappearing nesting sites, a major problem here in the Cayman Islands.

Sea turtles graze on seagrass, keeping it short and healthy. That allows entire marine communities to thrive. They also eat jellyfish, and if we lose the turtles, we can look forward to oceans overwhelmed by jellyfish, tipping the marine ecosystem dangerously out of balance.

See more on the DoE Facebook page.