Injured Fish Found In Canada Illustrates The Harm Littering Can Cause

A Canadian man was left stunned when he found a fish that had grown around a plastic drink ring, whilst out fishing.

Adam Turnbull made the discovery that had grown around a plastic drink ring in the Saskatchewan River in Alberta, Canada on Saturday.

In a post on Facebook, which has been shared almost 12,000 times, he said: "Pick up your garbage.

"This is a Powerade wrapper which takes up no room in your pocket until you get to a garbage can. Please share!"

He later added: "Never thought this post would hit 10k shares. Thanks to everyone who has had a look at this post as it was meant to raise awareness and that it has."

The wrapper had become tightly coiled around the midsection of the Northern Pike, but the fish's body just continued to grow around it.

Adam took a few photos, cut the wrapper off, took a few more and put the fish back into the river.

The 28-year-old told the LADbible: "I was fishing in the South Saskatchewan River when I hooked into this fish as I've done many times before.

"It fought on the way in, although when I finally put my eyes on the fish I could tell something was definitely wrong.

"I originally thought the fish had been attacked by another fish as I could see the large wound.

"Once I picked the fish out of the water, I noticed the sports drink wrapper around its body, so I quickly grabbed a small pair of scissors and carefully removed the plastic.

"After a quick photo, I released the fish which shot off like a rocket. I hope to catch it again someday as I have strong hopes it will thrive now that the obstruction has been removed."

Adam added that he hoped his discovery would help people to realise that their actions can have dire consequences in nature.

"I just really want people to realise something as small as a drink wrapper, which takes up no space in your pocket, can have devastating effects on our outdoors and wildlife," he said.

LADbible has claimed the world's first country made entirely of trash to highlight the issue of plastic pollution in our oceans.

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Featured Image Credit: Adam Turnbull

Topics: World News, Pollution, US News, trashisles

James Dawson

James Dawson is a Journalist at LADbible. He has contributed articles to LADbible’s ‘Knowing Me, Knowing EU’ series on the EU referendum, the 'Electoral Dysfunction' series on the 2017 general election, the ‘U OK M8?’ series tackling mental health amongst young men, and for its ‘Climate Change’ initiative in partnership with National Geographic.

@thejaytoday