A team of biologists was carrying out research off the coast of Costa Rica when they spotted a turtle that appeared to be in distress. The animal was an Olive Ridley turtle, the species that is famous for its mass synchronised beach nesting, known as arribidas. Olive Ridley turtles are also called Pacific Ridley turtles and they are currently classified as a vulnerable species globally, with many national listings classifying it as threatened or endangered.
The turtle that the research team found was visibly struggling to breathe and on closer inspection they found that something appeared to be lodged inside its left nostril. Using a pair of pliers and holding the animal down, they gently pulled on the obstruction. At first they assumed that the object was a parasite, such as a hookworm or tubeworm. As they pulled more and more out, the nostril started bleeding and the turtle became agitated and began struggling and hissing. The research team were concerned that they might be damaging the poor turtle’s brain by having to pull so hard that blood poured from its nose and decided to simply cut off the part that was sticking out and stop their attempt to remove
the whole thing.
On examining the long, tubular material that they had cut off, they changed their minds when they recognised the black and white striped object and realised that it was a plastic straw. They decided to persevere and pull out the whole length of the straw, even though it was very firmly lodged in the turtle’s nostril. It took some time and a great deal of hard pulling to remove the piece of plastic debris but they agreed that leaving it inside the nostril would probably have been fatal for the sea creature.
The team could not see how the straw could have become lodged so firmly inside the animal’s nostril if it had entered from the outside. They decided that the likely explanation was that the turtle had assumed it was food and eaten the straw. On realising that it was inedible, the turtle probably would have regurgitated it, during which time it got stuck inside the nostril.
After its ordeal, they were unable to take the turtle back to shore to give it a full medical checkup, as the permit allowing them to do research on turtles strictly prohibited removing them from the sea and taking them onto dry land. They would have faced fines and prosecution for doing so. Hopefully the turtle will not suffer any permanent damage now that the plastic straw has been safely removed from its nostril.
This animal was lucky enough to come to the attention of trained biologists who recognised the difficulties it was suffering and were able to use their skills to carefully remove the plastic waste that was harming it. How many thousands of animals are enduring the same fate around the globe, but are unable to remove the plastic straws, bags and ring pulls that are slowly killing them?
The research team videoed their attempts to help the turtle while it was on board their vessel and later uploaded the film to YouTube, where it received nearly 5 million views. The video was entitled ‘Sea Turtle with Straw up its Nostril – “NO” TO PLASTIC STRAWS’ and hopefully the publicity that the video has generated will make people think twice before carelessly tossing a plastic straw into the sea.
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