Scubaism

THIS teenager was taken from the water near Sydney’s Palm Beach with four fish hooks in her gut. The green sea turtle is still in intensive care but after two months of treatment at Taronga Zoo and two lots of surgery, she may yet make a full recovery.

If she survives, she will be one of the lucky ones. This year alone, the Zoo has taken in 20 different sea turtles found by fishers. Only five have lived.

The turtles swallow fish hooks and lines and many starve to death as the metal claws eroded their stomachs. “Unfortunately, when we find the turtles they’ve (usually) had the hooks and lines in them a long time,” the Zoo wildlife hospital manager Libby Hall said. “The hooks . . . put holes in the intestines (and) they end up with a very large gut impaction. They can’t feed and they starve to death,” she said.

Many sea turtles that suffer this fate are not found until they rise to the surface and float after they die. This particular green sea turtle, a 8.6kg teenager, was found early. The hooks could be surgically removed as they had not settled deep in her gut.