UPY 2025

UPY  Save our Seas Foundation Marine Conservation - Commended
'Death trap'
Simon Lorenz

Turtles in our oceans are under threat from marine pollution. They consume floating plastic and get entangled in fishing nets. Ghost nets are discarded or lost nets that entangle floatsam and rubbish into floating death traps. The problem in Sri Lanka is that fishermen leave the nets afloat as they are fish aggregation devices. They will rescue turtles if they come across it but since these floats can me many miles from shore, the rescue often comes too late.
We were looking for whales 35 miles offshore when we came across this badly entangled Olive Ridley sea turtle. She was very calm while our guide and my guests freed the turtle from the net.

Judge's comment: Unfortunately we are depressingly familiar with images of marine life caught in nets but this captures the extra weight and drag that the net also catches. A lovely photograph of an awful image.
Peter Rowlands