Freedivers saved the lives of five sea turtles that were caught in an abandoned fishing net. Footage, taken by one of the divers, shows the boat pull up to the stricken turtles as they struggle to free themselves from the huge net near Embudu Reef, Maldives. The olive ridley sea turtles struggle as the men then attempt to cut them free with huge fishing knives. One by one the men, from the ApneaMaldives freediving and fishing company, manage to free the turtles. Each is pulled onto the boat to ensure all traces of the net are gone before they are thrown back to sea. Diver Ahmed Shammoon said that the group were unable to save one of the creatures. He said: ‘We were on a trip to a nearby island when one of the people on board showed me this huge thing floating far away on the ocean. ‘I noticed something was struggling with it. I went to check on it and found it was four grown turtles and two juvenile turtles caught on a fish net floating in the ocean. ‘I believe someone threw this into the ocean. We were able to rescue five of them but one juvenile was dead long before we could help him.’ ApneaMaldives hope their video will increase awareness around the problems of disposing rubbish in the ocean. In 2015 animal rescuers found an olive ridley turtle shuffling along a beach in Costa Rica, Central America, with a plastic fork jammed in its nostril. Mr Shammoon added: ‘Now the world’s oceans are filling with waste and plastics, everyone is talking about it. ‘These beautiful, hungry creatures go near the rubbish in the hope of food but instead they get strangled and die. ‘It doesn’t happen very often here but we hear of people encountering it more now. Turtles are very strong animals and a large number can be rescued but with heavy injuries. ‘Everyone is emotional and it is hard to see how helpless they are. I could literally cry watching this footage and it just keeps coming back to my mind about the dead juvenile turtle.’ Mr Shammoon added that everyone should be doing their bit to keep the ocean clean. ‘ApneaMaldives promote freediving and eco-friendly, sustainable fishing and eating what you catch,’ he said. ‘Maldives is highly focused on tourism and people are aware of the consequences of these kind of acts. ‘The majority of the locals take care of the ocean, but these kinds of incidents happen due to bad acts of a few people. ‘The Maldives is the paradise on earth that millions of people visit and pay to see. Let’s keep it that way, take care of our ocean.’
Associated Newspapers Ltd