The turtle choked on a plastic bag and would have died of hunger if it hadn't been for this diver
While swimming in the Red Sea, a 46-year-old lecturer at Bournemouth University, Saeed Rashid, saw a female sea turtle of the bissa species that feed on jellyfish. When he got closer and took a few pictures, he realized that the turtle was in trouble: a package was stuck in its throat, which made it unable to eat. Rashid immediately removed the camera, took the turtle by the shell and pulled the package out of its throat.
Source: Daily Mail
The diver says that the turtle behaved surprisingly calmly in his hands and easily allowed him to help her. He found that the package not only got into her mouth, but penetrated 20 centimeters into her throat.
"Almost as soon as I pulled out this bag, she tried to eat another one that was floating by. I quickly put it away, and she continued to devour the numerous jellyfish that surrounded us. She was obviously very hungry."
"I have been scuba diving for 20 years. I have been lucky enough to visit all over the world, and I see that recently there has been much more plastic floating in the water. I always collect what I can, but it's a drop in a very real sea," Rashid explained.
He added: "In a strange way, on this trip we met more turtles than I have ever seen before, but if we don't do something now, they will soon die. I want our children to be able to see with their own eyes what I fell in love with the ocean for. I often talk about plastic pollution of the ocean, but I have never met it so closely."
Keywords: Diving | Pollution | Ocean | Underwater photography | Underwater world | Help | Rescue | Turtles