Turtle Found Dead With Fishing Line Tangled Around Its Throat

Photojournalist Shane Gross, 34, has shared the photo to try and raise awareness about plastic pollution and the dangers of things ending up in the ocean, which can be fatal to wildlife.

He 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.

"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.

"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.

"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."

Last October, Gumbo Limbo Nature Centre, in Florida, shared a similarly striking image, showing a tiny dead turtle alongside 104 pieces of plastic that had been found inside its stomach.

Gumbo Limbo Nature Centre also explained that all of the dead turtles it had found that season had been found to have plastic in their intestines.

Sharing the photo on Facebook, the nature centre wrote: "Not such a happy #TurtleTuesday this week. It's washback season at Gumbo Limbo and weak, tiny turtles are washing up along the coastline needing our help.

"Unfortunately, not every washback survives. 100 percent of our washbacks that didn't make it had plastic in their intestinal tracts.

"This turtle, which would fit in the palm of your hand, had eaten 104 pieces of plastic. This is a sad reminder that we all need to do our part to keep our oceans plastic free."