Conservationists Spot Sea Turtle With Unusual Horn in Its Nose- Stunned on Knowing It Was Single-Use Plastic

The ever-increasing plastic debris accumulated in oceans worldwide has become a threat to the marine ecosystem. While humans can conveniently identify the drastic implications of plastic pollution on land, the deadly effect on marine life often goes unnoticed. That is until rescue groups share detailed cases of plastic ingestion and entanglement of marine animals. In a similar occurrence, a researcher and his team were alerted about a sea turtle with a foreign thorn-like material protruding from its nose, as documented by The Leatherback Trust (@TheLeatherBackTrust) on YouTube. 

Marine biologist, Dr. Nathan J. Robinson and the Leatherback Trust team spotted an olive ridley sea turtle recovered a plastic fork firmly stuck in the nose of the poor animal. The incident occurred during their ongoing research project on the Ostional beach in Costa Rica, off the Pacific coast in 2015. The tragic video is a demonstration of the consequence of single-use plastics polluting the planet. The researchers were initially flabbergasted by the base of the spoon sticking out like a horn from the turtle’s nose. Robinson swiftly captured images of the animal as it struggled to escape from their captivity. The scientist then gently held the turtle’s head and tugged on the plastic fork with his hand. 

Unsuccessful in his feat, he then pulled out a tiny tool, seemingly a plier, to try and draw out the lodged plastic fork. It required quite an effort from Robinson to safely remove the plastic bit that was likely impairing the sea turtle’s breathing. Up until that point, the researcher and his team were clueless about the material. However, as soon as Robinson dragged it out with force, the crowd expressed shock at how the fork may have lodged itself into the turtle’s tiny nose. It was particularly concerning that the pronged part of the fork was stuck in its nose rather than the elongated part. Robinson was disappointed by the discovery, clear from his expression at the time. 

Later on, he along with a group of researchers incorporated the findings and documented the turtle images in a study published in the Marine Turtle Newsletter. The paper predicted that there will be a significant increase in the frequency and diversity of interactions between marine life and plastic debris over time. It also described another rescue incident where they documented a plastic straw in the nostril of another olive ridley sea turtle. The study reported that Robinson and the Leatherback Trust were present at the beach to attend the mass-nesting events of sea turtles and collect epibionts from the animals. 

In the study, they hypothesized that the fork was not lodged into the turtle by force but rather through ingestion. The turtle may have ingested the plastic fork, presumably mistaking it for penaeid shrimp or a crab’s appendage, and then tried to regurgitate it. While that process occurs in the mouth, the fork, being rigid, was somehow passed into the internal nares of the turtle but the width of the fork’s prongs restricted it from being completely discarded out of the body. The video encouraged people to stop using single-use plastic as every plastic bit can gravely injure precious marine life. It’s high time humans take control of their careless actions and make sustainable decisions.

You can follow @TheLeatherbackTrust on YouTube for more rescue and environmental videos.