A second turtle was rescued at St Paul’s Bay, Nature Trust said. The turtle had a very large hook embedded in its beak and was found on the seabed and brought to the surface.  Nature Trust (Malta) would thanks the diver, members of the public and the Malta Police Force for their help.

The rescue team is seeing an increase in members of the public trying to remove hooks, ingested lines and entanglements from turtles.  Nature Trust (Malta) appeals to all - if you find a turtle with an embedded hook or ingested line, please do not attempt to deal with any of these things.  With ingested line, the best thing for the sake of the turtle is that you do not cut or pull the line.  If you pull ingested line it will result in severe internal injuries for the turtle and can cause death.   Ingested line should only be removed by a Veterinary Surgeon.

With embedded hooks, the analogy that can be drawn is when a human has an injury caused by an object piercing the skin and embedding itself into the flesh or bone beneath: one would never think to remove such an object from a human because of the many dangers this would bring up.  With a turtle, this should always apply:  any removal of embedded hooks or ingested line should only be dealt with by a qualified expert Veterinary Surgeon in clean conditions and with the proper equipment available to deal with the damage.

The same applies to entanglements.  The rescue team often arrives at the scene of a rescue to find that a well-meaning member of public has removed entanglement such as fishing line, rope, netting etc.  Removal of entanglement can and does result in blood clots which will kill a turtle.

All marine turtles are protected in law and it is illegal to handle or in any way interfere with them without a specific permit from the Environment Resources Authority. One can help an injured turtle by calling our 24/7 Emergency Rescue Line 99999505.