A group of Maltese fishermen who had gone out for a day of fishing saved a severely entangled turtle after coming across it by chance. In the video, a pile of debris is seen floating on the surface of the ocean. When the fishermen pull the floating pile in, a turtle can be seen among the mess.

While the turtle’s tow back legs seem relatively free, it’s entire upper body is entangled in a series of nets and ropes, with some of the fibres even wrapped around its neck.

The Maltese fishermen pull out their knives and quickly work at getting the turtle freed. Once the nets are removed, the turtle can be seen moving its legs frantically before the fishermen release the turtle back into the sea, net-free.

“Today we went fishing, and we saved a turtle from the jaws of death,” said one of the fishermen on Facebook as he posted the video, and the comments below praised the fishermen for helping out the entangled turtle.

What do you think of this save?

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Johnathan Cilia

Johnathan is an award-winning Maltese journalist interested in social justice, politics, minority issues, music and food. Follow him at @supreofficialmt on Instagram, and send him news, food and music stories at [email protected]