Featured Image Credit: South Carolina Aquarium
By Sarah Sharkey
Peach the Kemp’s Ridley turtle was doomed to death after she swallowed a fishing line that was cutting her gut. The adult female’s luck changed when she was randomly captured by researchers during a marine-life sampling near Charleston in the shipping channel.
The crew aboard a Department of Natural Resources vessel were the people who caught her. They could not let her back into the water in good conscience, because they knew she was facing certain death. So they called a vessel to take her to the South Carolina Aquarium where she underwent risky surgery.
Visitors watched the delicate operation in the new Sea Turtle Care Center. This was the first surgery in the center since it opened a $5.3 million addition at the aquarium. Shane Boyland, staff veterinarian, saw the line going down her throat and started to figure out how to remove it. He was able to see that the line was lodge somewhere in the intestine beyond the reach of the endoscope. Boyland said, “That’s a lethal sentence for any animal. It is cutting through the gut. We have to get it out.”
Luckily for Peach, Boyland was able to get it out. Peach was swimming around happily on Tuesday, but Boyland says she is still in “guarded condition” due to the possibility of infection.
Peach was lucky, but there are many other turtles who fall victim to the microfilament fishing line that is extremely harmful to wildlife. We have to remember to be careful when it comes to leaving plastics, such as microfilaments in the water. Plastic in the water is a huge problem for animals, but it is also a problem for humans. The plastic causes death in animals and humans eat the plastic residue when we eat anything that comes out of the ocean. Studies have not yet been done about the effects on humans, but it cannot be good for us.