“Thank goodness we were lucky enough to find her when we did.”
Jorge Gonzalez Escolar is a boater who works for the Neptune Experience, a whale watching excursions business on the coast of Tenerife, Spain. Though not officially part of the job, Escolar and his colleagues try to do a bit of extra good while out on the water.
“We always pick up trash we find,” Escolar told The Dodo. “And while we were leaving the dock [the other day], I saw a floating fishing net.”
But there was more to this mass of netting than met the eye.
Looking closer, Escolar noticed a pair of flippers protruding from the netting, splashing helplessly at the water.
“There was a turtle tangled in it,” Escolar said. “My reaction was to try to free it.”
Escolar stopped the boat, after which one of his colleagues leapt into the water to retrieve the turtle. He then brought her aboard so she could be cut out of the net that bound her.
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It took no small effort to cut the turtle free — proving just how unlikely it would have been for her to escape the netting on her own.
“Thank goodness we were lucky enough to find her when we did,” Escolar said. “A few hours later and she would be dead.”
Instead, the turtle was released back to sea unharmed.
That day, the passengers aboard Escolar’s whale watching vessel received a lesson on kindness — and on the dangers of ocean pollution.
“It was very educational, especially for the children. We must make people aware that throwing trash into the sea kills animals,” Escolar said. “This was not the first turtle we’ve freed, and it certainly won’t be the last.”
