Maritime LookBook: Trawler net, plastics entanglement of marine turtles worry Akassa Conservation Centre

By onepageafrica Last updated Aug 15, 2021

Raynus Ebiegberi

This #MaritimeLookBook showcases part of what is done at the Akassa Turtle Conservation Centre.

The Centre is still very concerned about how marine turtles washed ashore across Akassa are entangled in trawler nets and plastics.

Trawlers operating along the Nigerian coast are perhaps not fitted with the Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) and are therefore catching turtles as well as shrimp and other bycatch.

The turtles are usually nesting and foraging in 41km beaches, but we routinely monitor just 24 km.

Collecting data before letting the turtle back into sea.

Entangled turtle died at sea and washed ashore in Akassa

Waiting to be freed from fishing net entanglement around the neck.

Simply beautiful. It has since been sent back to sea.

Marks showing the movement pattern of the turtle as it returns into the water.

Raynus Ebiegberi who manages activities at the Akassa Turtles Conservation Centre, helps to disentangle a turtle trapped by a fishing net.

Photos by Raynus Ebiegberi

Akassa Turtle Conservation Centre, Bayelsa State.

#AtTheMarinaToday #SDG14 Akassa Development Centre Bayelsa Conservation fishing nets Marine plastic pollution Marine Turtle