Dead Turtle Found In Maltese Waters Entangled In Discarded Fishing Line
A dead female turtle was found in Maltese waters over the weekend, entangled in what appears to be a discarded fishing line.
On 14th August, two local divers reported their encounter with a dead turtle lying on the seabed due to entanglement during one of their dives, in the area of Wied iż-Żurrieq.
Shortly after, a retrieval mission took place with the collaboration of Nature Trust’s Wildlife Rescue Team, and environmental NGO Żibel, with the operation taking around two hours.
“She died from suffocation as she couldn’t resurface to breathe and internally she was haemorrhaging from swallowing a hook which ripped her internally,” one of the people accompanying the divers said.
“The turtle was an adult female specimen of around 20-25 years, with a line coming out of the back, indicating hook ingestion,” Nature Trust explained.
“The line was entangled and stuck to rocks, preventing the turtle from surfacing for air. The turtle’s struggles to surface also caused internal damage by pulling on the line and the hook.”
“Divers took underwater scooters to the turtle’s location where they wrapped the turtle in a net and secured it with cable ties,” Żibel founder Andrew Schembri told Lovin Malta.
“Once secure, two lift bags were attached to the turtle and sent to the surface where Zibel’s boat crew collected it and took it to shore where the Wildlife Rescue Team took readings and documented the specimen.”
The divers involved in the rescue were Anna Degiorgio and Nunzio Dugo, along with Arek, Jonathan and Andrew from the Żibel team, and Wildlife Rescue Team’s Angelique and Clare Degiorgio.
This case is a true testament to the damage that discarded items can bring to marine animals, with turtles often getting injured or even losing their lives due to entanglement or suffocation.
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