A 34-year-old photographer shared heartbreaking images of a dead turtle with a fishing line tangled around its throat.
According to experts, the turtle died after being starved of oxygen due to the plastic fishing line that was wrapped around its throat.
34-year-old Shane Gross, a photojournalist, shared the picture to raise awareness about plastic pollution and how they can risk the lives of animals.
In a statement that he released, Gross said, “My partner found the turtle already long dead with fishing line entangling both the turtle and the coral. In all likelihood, the green sea turtle became entangled and could not reach the surface to breathe and drowned.”
He added, “I removed the fishing line so no scavengers would also become entangled and took pictures to help prevent this from happening again. I felt terrible imagining what kind of suffering this turtle must have gone through.”
He continued, “People who see the photos say that they find the image very disturbing. Discarded fishing gear continues to kill animals long after its usefulness to humanity is gone either through entanglement, called Ghost Fishing, or it breaks down into microplastics causing problems throughout the entire food chain.”
He went on, “A large percentage of the great pacific garbage patch is made up of abandoned fishing gear. We need to re-think how we get our protein.”
Shane Gross is a Canadian Marine Conservation Photojournalist that is based in the Bahamas. He shares his clicks on his Instagram account, where he has over 7300 followers.
You can follow Gross here.