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Our rescued Green Turtles with ‘Floater Syndrome’

Like many of you I have made, heard & seen posts about marine animals dying asphyxiated due to marine debris ingestion… Sadly two months ago I personally experienced an encountered with a young green turtle. We found him struggling in the open sea, not far from our diving destination point. He was trying hard to swim down, however it didn’t matter how hard he tried something was holding him up, and that was the first hint that there was a problem. Our captain saw it from far, turn around and I jumped to see what was the problem. His shell was covered in barnacles (a healthy turtle can control its barnacle load so if it has excessive barnacles; this is a symptom that something is very wrong with the turtle and, most probably, it has been sick for a while) & algae. With help of Andi (our captain) we put it in the boat, it was so exhausted that we could see how relief it was to be somewhere solid. Scared but just resting after his failing attempt to swim. We took him to the resort in order to seek for help. It took us a bit of time to actually find the right place, thanks to KTCS service we could contact a Turtle Sanctuary in Kota Kinabalu and they transfer it the following morning. News were published in the following link https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/…/green-turtle-makes-215…/

Basically, He has gas built up in his stomach probably due to plastic consumption and that kept him from going down and get food. He is a young adult and his chances to survive are 50% after aparently a month of being struggling with this problem. Sea turtles are especially susceptible to the effects of consuming marine debris due to their bodies own structure. They have downward facing spines in their throats which prevent the possibility of regurgitation. The plastics get trapped in their stomach, which prevents them from properly swallowing food. Also, many sea turtle rehabilitation facilities commonly deal with “bubble butts,” turtles that float as a result of trapped gas caused by harmful decomposition of marine debris inside a turtle’s body. The gases cause the turtle to float, which leads to starvation or makes them an easy target for predators.

A week ago we found another green turtle almost in the same conditions that the previous one, which we were luckily able to help it and took it to
Gaya Island Resort Marine Centre. Professionals there are making great efforts to help these turtles. Now it may sound like another sad news on your side but on our side we see these amazing critters swimming smoothly and gracefully across the sea and it really is devastating. So what are you doing to contribute to the care of nature? Have you ever think how many plastic you take up to your home? Maybe next time instead of asking for a plastic bag at the supermarket you may think twice and bring your own reusable one. Or when you ask for a drink you may ask for no plastic straws ! Little changes in our behaviour will definitely settle an example to others and can make big changes for our planet.

Everyday is a new start, become part of the change #crushplastic