Removing a plastic straw from a sea turtle's nostril

While on a research project in Costa Rica, Nathan J. Robinson removed a 10 cm (4 in) plastic straw that was entirely embedded into the nostril of an olive ridley sea turtle. Lamentably, this is a consequence of the world of single-use, non-biodegradable plastic that we currently live in.

a reply to: yulka

It would be so damn easy to use non harmful products.

Straws used to be made of paper and they worked well. So many things we could change .. and at no real cost. People are just too damn stupid and greedy.

Star and Flag. Nice post. Thank you.

P

a reply to: yulka

Very sad. The great pacific garbage patch is a calling card to humanity to do better in looking after the marine flora and fauna that we all share this planet with.

Unfortunately, many many parts of the world, most especially 3rd world and developing countries' coastlines are riddled with debris of one form or another. Sailing through the Indonesian Archipelago between Singapore and Bali is some of the filthiest ocean I have seen, even at over 1000m deep, it's like dishwater in some parts.

I am fortunate to live in a country that has some of the strictest bio-security measures on the planet, even so, all it takes is one plastic bag to kill various marine life.

In AU the tap water has flouride in it, some say it's bad for you so people are panicky about tap.

but I take that over bottled water (price wise a 1l of bottled water is more expensive then 1l of petrol). I tried to filter I suck am so lazy.
people argue bottled water is safer but tap waters is more regulated then most of bottled water (that still contain flouride .wouldnt even know)

we are trying in Perth AU
to get enough signatures on a petition, we wrote to PM of WA to ban fluoride dumping but still nothing poor animals they get their had stuck in a bottle and can't pull it out so their suffocate

Thank you for the thread!!!!! it's bad!

that's true but what is said above
people don't leave rubish around
beaches are always clean it would almost be a sin to leave rubish laying around



if recycling was compulsary and there was penalty for not.. I ll be darn more motivated

what I love about USA
they use paper bags in supermarkets
well at least that's what I see in movies

I watched this video on social media a couple weeks ago. It was very sad, you could see the emotion in the turtle's face.

I despise people who litter. I consider it a major character flaw that they can just throw a bag of fast food wrappers or a bottle out the car window or drop trash on the streets. A few years ago I pulled a baby squirrels head out of one of those plastic bottles of honey that looks like a bear. It was running all over the yard, running in to trees, because it was trying to climb. I finally got him wrapped in a towel and pulled it off. It was hard for me to remember a time when I was so sad and pissed off at the same time. It's been a little over 100 years since plastic was invented and look at the damage we've done. You almost literally can't walk down the street without seeing a plastic bottle or other man made crap lying around. Our oceans are full of it and killing more wildlife every day. Now, imagine what the planet will look like in another 100 years.

a reply to: yulka

This is an extremely important topic. The negligent ways in which people "dispose" of their garbage is killing the world around us! Beautiful and innocent creatures like this turtle are subjected to mankind's laziness and ignorance; the ocean is ENORMOUS and we aren't even getting a glimpse of what goes on in there. This is just one situation where people caught something on film, imagine all of the times things like this happen and the straw DOESNT get removed and people aren't there to capture it on film?

This should be very eye-opening. S & F thank you for sharing this and getting the information out here

I saw this vid a few days ago on Facebook. Very, very sad!

When I watched this on Facebook the other day, I had my children watch with me. I wanted them to see the emotions the turtle displayed so they understood why they needed to be responsible with their actions. They could not believe how long the straw was and cried when the turtle began to bleed. Although a bit traumatic for them, they need to know their actions have consequences and we have a responsibility to protect our surroundings.

a reply to: yulka

I despise litter bugs. I don't know what the hell is wrong with people where they think it's okay to throw trash on the ground. Is the garbage fairy going to clean it up? Then stuff like this happens as a result.

Words can't even describe the feeling I get in my stomach seeing the pain that poor little turtle went through with every pull. This is a cold, careless world we live in. As sad is that reality check is, I'm glad they finished the job, cleaned the turtle up, and made sure the it was good before releasing it back into the water. Sigh...