The two friends acted quickly when they noticed a sea turtle having trouble swimming because a net was caught in one of his fins.
The fact that plastic and hazardous waste are everywhere in the world’s waterways is a well-known fact. The entire ecosystem is put in danger, and water animals’ habitats are lost. Tons of trash and plastic must be waded through by marine life, which is deadly and hazardous. The most severely impacted species are sea turtles, 52% of which have been found to have consumed plastic after confusing it with food. Additionally, they become tangled in plastic fishing nets, which makes it impossible for them to escape predators and causes them to drown.
For hungry sea turtles, it’s nearly impossible to distinguish between jellyfish and floating plastic shopping bags. Learn 10 facts about single-use plastic bags: https://t.co/iXma5mKC4p pic.twitter.com/9mtxCJxUqH
— Texas Adopt-A-Beach (@TXAdoptABeach) December 2, 2022
An Australian explorer named Nick Fry recently shared a video in which he and several of his friends helped free a sea turtle from a crab pot net that had become twisted around one of its fins. Fry and a small group of other people were sailing when they saw the turtle attempting to swim in the water. According to My Modern Met, the 22-year-old entered the scene as soon as possible with one of his friends to assess the situation.
They immediately realized that a net had become tangled around the turtle’s fin, preventing it from continuing to swim. Additionally, it appears that trash from the water clogged the net. Fry was holding the turtle in his arms as the second man gradually removed the net from around its fin. The animal was eventually completely freed from the plastic and allowed to resume swimming. The dangerous net was retrieved and removed by Fry and his friends.
They cautioned people against disposing of trash in the ocean, particularly dangerous nets and strings that could easily endanger marine life. Their Instagram video gained nearly 9,000 likes and 93k views before going viral. Many users commended them for caring for the turtle. “This made me so happy my heart smiled!” Another commented, “Aww this made my day! Y’all are so awesome for helping the turtle out!”
Fry has also participated in numerous rescue operations to save stranded marine life. He can be seen saving a turtle that is stuck on its back on the beach in another YouTube video. Giving the turtle another chance at life, he flipped it over and pushed it back into the water. Fry was overjoyed to assist him and even let out a happy scream when the turtle swam away into the water. He noted in the description that during the mating season, female turtles frequently hide out in the sand to avoid male turtles. He added, “Male turtles can’t walk on sand properly, so very rarely a male can stay attached to the female and come up on the sand. When this happens, they sometimes fall off and land upside down on the beach.”
He claimed that it causes a very slow death and puts the into a “hopeless” situation. “Thankfully, I was able to find and flip this turtle back around and help it live another day,” he continued. On YouTube, this video received nearly 160 million views.