Turtles clogged with plastic are rescued in Argentina

Reuters Videos
Updated

These turtles were found with ten types of plastic inside them

after they were rescued from a fishing net in Argentina

Location: San Clemente del Tuyo, Argentina

(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MUNDO MARINO FOUNDATION BIOLOGIST, KARINA ALVAREZ, SAYING:"Three of the sea turtles came through the rehabilitation center due to their mixing with plastic. One of them discharged a large amount of plastic, which we often do not see. Those sorts of plastics are found throughout waters and animals are precisely the indicators of the presence of these pollutants."

Two green turtles and four loggerhead turtles

were rehabilitated for over a month

to make sure their digestive systems were free of plastic

before they were returned to the wild

(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MUNDO MARINO FOUNDATION BIOLOGIST, KARINA ALVAREZ, SAYING:

"The danger of plastic is that it is silent. Many times, the animal appears to be in perfect health. However, during the checkup and evaluation we found a large

amount of this material inside.So, it is important to get rid of the plastic before the condition worsens and it ends up causing the deaths of the specimens."