Be the first to comment!Turtle rescued with large hook embedded in beak, the second of 2017
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The second turtle of 2017 was rescued on Monday morning at St Paul’s Bay. The turtle had a very large hook embedded in its beak and was found on the seabed and brought to the surface.
Nature Trust (Malta) thanked the diver, members of the public and the Malta Police Force for their help.
The rescue team said that it is seeing an increase in members of the public trying to remove hooks, ingested lines and entanglements from turtles. Nature Trust (Malta) appealed to all – “if you find a turtle with an embedded hook or ingested line, please do not attempt to deal with any of these things.”
“With ingested line, the best thing for the sake of the turtle is that you do not cut or pull the line. If you pull ingested line it will result in severe internal injuries for the turtle and can cause death. Ingested line should only be removed by a Veterinary Surgeon,” NTM added.
“With embedded hooks, the analogy that can be drawn is when a human has an injury caused by an object piercing the skin and embedding itself into the flesh or bone beneath: one would never think to remove such an object from a human because of the many dangers this would bring up,” the NGO said.
NTM continued, “with a turtle, this should always apply: any removal of embedded hooks or ingested line should only be dealt with by a qualified expert Veterinary Surgeon in clean conditions and with the proper equipment available to deal with the damage.”
“The same applies to entanglements. The rescue team often arrives at the scene of a rescue to find that a well-meaning member of public has removed entanglement such as fishing line, rope, netting etc. Removal of entanglement can and does result in blood clots which will kill a turtle.”
All marine turtles are protected in law and it is illegal to handle or in any way interfere with them without a specific permit from the Environment Resources Authority, Nature Trust (Malta) said that to provide help for an injured turtle please call the 24/7 Emergency Rescue Line 99999505.
