The occupants of a boat sailing this Tuesday afternoon to port were met with an unpleasant surprise in the waters of Formentera, a turtle wrapped in an illegal fishing net turned into a death trap.
The animal was rescued by Joan Ribas, skipper of a charter boat two miles from es Caló, at around 7.30 pm.
“We were sailing back to port when I saw the net floating with plastic bottles tied to it and it seemed very strange and when we got closer I saw a flipper sticking out of the tangle. We went towards it and the turtle let us take it. It was exhausted. It’s incredible that it was alive because it could have been several days without being able to submerge and also its head was completely entangled, so I don’t think it could eat,” explains Ribas.
In the end, with great care, they managed to free the animal’s head and flippers to release it back into the sea.
The net was a artisanal longline with four plastic bottles as buoys, which had become a trap and has now been removed from the sea.