Five-inch plastic straw removed from nose of endangered sea turtle off Guanacaste coast in hard-to-watch video

August 14^th, 2015 (ICR News) A heartbreaking video making its rounds online today shows why plastic trash in the ocean is such a problem for marine wildlife.

The video shows a group of marine biologists off the coast of Costa Rica’s Guanacaste province removing a five-inch plastic straw from the nostril of an endangered Olive Ridley sea turtle.

At first, the researchers thought it might be a parasitic worm.

Christine Figgener, one of the researchers said that the decision to remove the item at sea could not be avoided.  “We were on the ocean a few hours away from the coast and several hours away from any vet and x-ray machines. Plus, we would have incured a penalty on ourselves by removing the turtle since that is beyond our resarch permits,” Figener said.

Many have reacted angrily online, saying that the biologists were cruel and in fact caused more pain and discomfort to the sea turtle than if they hadn’t removed it, The Telegraph reports.

Others, however have defended their actions saying that the turtle would have eventually died had nothing been done.

“The bleeding stopped pretty much immediately after the removal of the straw,” Figgener said. “He did very obviously not enjoy the procedure very much, but we hope that he is now able to breathe more freely.”

The researcher also said that the turtle was sufficiently recovered when they released it back to the ocean.  “We disinfected the air passageway with iodine and kept the turtle for observation before releasing him back into the wild,” Figgener said, according to the The Telegraph, adding that the video shows “why plastic rubbish is detrimental to marine life.”