Any paddler who spends a substantial amount of time on the ocean knows that plastic is a serious and omnipresent environmental problem. It is estimated that there are 5.25 trillion pieces of debris floating in our oceans. Of that enormous quantity of plastic, 269,000 tons float on the surface of the sea.
One turtle was unlucky enough to be caught in a piece of stringy plastic. Kayakers were able to bring the turtle onto their sit-on-top kayak and cut the tangled plastic that was wrapped around the turtle’s neck, dragging behind it as it swam. He then was released back into the water where he quickly swam below the surface.