COLOMBO —Galle Face Beach in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital, Colombo, is a popular spot among city dwellers, watched over by lifeguards assigned by the coast guard unit of the Sri Lanka Navy. But one Sunday morning, lifeguard Chamara Vipulasena’s rescue wasn’t a human swimmer, but a sea turtle entangled in a drifting fishing net. Vipulasena had to swim about 150 meters (492 feet) from shore to reach the struggling turtle. “The net was old and covered with algae, suggesting it had been drifting for some time,” he told Mongabay. The exhausted young olive ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) sported deep cuts on its flippers and head, from its struggle to break free from the nylon threads. The turtle could have been floating with the net without feeding for days, Vipulasena said. The turtle was later treated for its injuries and released back to the sea. Two olive ridley turtles caught in discarded fishing nets. Image courtesy of Galbokka Sea Turtle Conservation & Research Center. This rescue highlights a growing problem in Sri Lanka’s waters with abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear, commonly called “ghost nets.” These nets continue to trap and kill marine animals long after being discarded in to the sea — an act known as “ghost fishing.” “These lost fishing gear kill scores of marine species and remains a specific problem for marine turtles,” said Thushan Kapurusinghe, project lead of the Turtle Conservation Project of Sri Lanka. The impact of ghost nets extends well beyond Sri Lanka. A five-year…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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