A seven-feet-long nylon fishing line was extracted out from the anus of an Olive ridley turtle, which had been rescued and brought to the Dahanu turtle rehabilitation centre. The trauma of the female turtle is a clear indicator of the increasing impact of marine litter on marine life.
The turtle had been rescued after being washed ashore and was brought to the centre run by Wildlife Conservation and Animal Welfare Association (WCAWA) on July 16 from Chinchani beach 18 kms off Dahanu. However at the time of rescue there was no indication that it had ingested a fishing line.
According to Pratik Wahurwagh a volunteer with WCAWA the fishing line was only seen on Thursday with one of its end stuck in the cloacal opening of the turtle while around four feet was already pushed out by it.
Wahurwagh on noticing the turtle's ordeal immediately alerted Dr Dinesh Vinherkar, wildlife veterinarian and turtle expert associated with WCAWA and he instructed them not to pull the rope- as if at all there was a fishing hook with the fishing line it could tear the intestines. "I reached Dahanu early on Friday morning and carried out a detailed medical investigation of the turtle. Since we do not have a facility of X-ray at our centre we rushed it to a private centre and the scans brought a huge respite as there was no hook just the rope stuck," said Vinherkar.
While carefully observing the scans, Vinherkar decided to probe the rectal area using his fingers itself to understand if the fishing line could be safely extracted. "I started checking the area and realised that it were the knots that were causing it to remain stuck and taking all the precaution I gently removed it. She is still under observation," he said adding that he along with all the volunteers were shocked to find a seven feet long fishing line coming out of a turtle's gut.
Vinherkar said on few earlier occasions too they have found small plastic objects and other foreign materials excreted out by turtles that were brought to the centre but the case of fishing line was indeed scary and it should serve as a wake up call on how marine mammals were consuming these litter thinking its food and it could lead to a painful death. "We hope people understand what trauma this olive ridley must have done through and take the issue of marine litter very seriously. Also these incidents highlight the need for every rescued turtle undergoing scans and X-rays to check if it has some foreign material in its stomach," said Vinherkar adding that they have already submitted an official letter to the forest department requesting for an X-ray machine.
