Disabled marine turtles


This week, I have been mostly... working with disabled marine turtles in Ambalangoda, Sri Lanka.

They are large, and heavy. They have sharp beaks. Some of them have serious attitude.

On that first afternoon with the aquatic reptiles, I was taking a portrait of one with my iPhone. This required holding the precious slab of computing wizardry scant millimetres from the water, and centimetres from the turtle. What could have been a nice moment was ruined when the turtle slapped the phone out of my hand, causing me to partly submerge myself in the water, in an effort to get it back. I was thrashing, and the turtle was thrashing too. My nostrils filled with turtle water, while the animal aimed its sharp beak at me, and sent up plumes of water. I held it back as best I could, and eventually retrieved the phone.

That was on Monday. It is now Saturday. Several trips to two phone shops in two different towns, and twenty thousand Sri Lankan rupees later, the phone is still crippled, and undergoing repairs.

On the Wednesday, one of the turtles bit my finger, and on the Tuesday, I nearly had my nose bitten off. Admittedly, I was taking liberties with the turtles.

So, it's dangerous work - but someone's gotta do it.

Some of these turtles have had their flippers damaged or torn off by fishing nets. Others are so full of plastic you have to manually submerge them during feeding time, because they float. We call them "bubbles".

It's been great working with these ancient sea creatures - feeding them, scrubbing their shells. Cleaning out the tanks isn't much fun but, hey, it's a job that needs doing.

Like so many other creatures, they are victims of human industry. They shouldn't have been injured in the first place, and they shouldn't have to live in these tanks.

The aim is to release them back into the sea when the time is right. But that is tough, for several reasons - not least because the turtles become institutionalised. One turtle returned to the shore four times, having been released several kilometres out to sea. So now he's back in his tank, pending a decision on his future.

Note: this post was originally published 15th October 2016.

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