The Tyre’s coast in the south of Lebanon is known for being a habitat for sea turtles. It is an officially protected area serving as a nesting site for the endangered sea animal.
However, that doesn’t stop pollution from floating around in the sea, causing harm to the turtles.
Gerard Baradhi from Tyre shared a video of him and his friends rescuing a sea turtle that had a plastic net tightly wrapped like ropes around her neck and flipper.
They struggled to remove the ropes that had long been digging further into the poor turtle’s skin. They managed to finally liberate the sea creature and freed her back into the sea.
Tyre Page, the city’s official social media account, stressed the importance of preserving marine environmental life, especially these types of sea turtles, because of their active role in ensuring environmental balance.
Pollution poses a threat to marine lives, including sea turtles, worldwide. In 2015, a 50-year-old turtle washed up on the shore in Tyre, dead after ingesting a plastic bag it mistook for a jellyfish.
There are attempts to protect these endangered animals in Lebanon that is home to two species of sea turtles: the green turtle and the loggerhead.
They can be found nesting in both the Tyre Coast Nature Reserve in the south and the Palm Islands Nature Reserve off the coast of El-Mina, Tripoli.
Watch the rescue video:
