This is the shocking moment a turtle rescued from a fishing net defecates plastic after swallowing rubbish in the sea.
The startling incident occurred after the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) was found caught in a fishing net in San Clemente del Tuyu, in the eastern Argentina province of Buenos Aires.
Video Credit: CEN/Mundo Marino
The fisherman then called the Mundo Marino foundation who sent a team to rescue the animal and bring it back to the centre.
The turtle’s weight was lower than normal and vets carried out blood tests to find out what was wrong.
The blood tests did not show any abnormalities but hours later the turtle began to excrete huge amounts of plastic rubbish.
In the video, the turtle can be seen swimming in a small pool when one of the foundation’s staff lifts it out of the water and plastic can be seen coming out of its rear.
Juan Pablo Loureiro, a vet from the Educative Park of the foundation Mundo Marino, said to local media: “It is worrying to find rubbish inside the digestive system of a marine turtle. You have to bear in mind that the accumulation of garbage generates the sensation of a lack of hunger that is decreasing due to the lack of food. This makes them weaker and will condition their chances of survival.”
The turtle was given an X-ray to check all the rubbish had been expelled from its system before it spent some time recovering with the foundation.
The video shows the turtle being released back into the ocean after completing its recovery.
Local media report 11 of the 24 turtles rescued and treated by the foundation this year have defected some kind of plastic during their treatment.
Victoria Gonzalez Carmen, a researcher for the National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigations, said to local media that “the ingestion of a huge amount of plastic generates a huge amount of gases in the digestive system of the animal that could affect their diving, searching for food and ability to escape from predators.”
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Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Central European News
