An endangered sea turtle has been found dead on an Alabama beach with the string from a beach chair tangled around its neck.
The Fort Morgan Share the Beach conservation group posted a photo on Facebook Saturday morning of a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle that had washed up dead on the beach at the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge in Fort Morgan, Alabama.
The sea turtle was pictured on its back, apparently strangled to death by a string attached to what would later be revealed to be a collapsed University of Alabama beach chair.
An Alabama conversation group shared pictures of a dead sea turtle members found while patrolling the beach at a wildlife refuge. The turtle washed up dead, tied to a beach chair
In the pictures, the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle can be seen, apparently strangled to death, by a string tied to a University of Alabama beach chair that found its way into the gulf
‘This makes me so mad,’ the accompanying Facebook post read. ‘How many hundreds of times do we have to ask people to pick their stuff up? It should just be common decency. I think I am going to print this out and carry it with me next time I have to ask.’
Two hours later, the group shared a second, more graphic picture of the sea turtle.
In that photo, the turtle has been flipped right side up and the beach chair is opened. It’s immediately clear how tightly the string has been wrapped around the turtle’s bloodied neck.
‘This is why we ask people to “Leave Only Footprints”, “Leave No Trace”, pick up after themselves when they leave the beach. This endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle was found during morning turtle patrol strangled by a beach chair. Please be responsible when visiting the beach – you are not the only one who uses it,’ the Facebook post stated.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service classifies the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle as being ‘the most endangered of the sea turtles’ (stock)
The conservation group noted that both photos were taken during the group’s morning turtle patrol, which is part of their US Fish and Wildlife Service-sanctioned stranding and salvage activities.
Share the Beach Fort Morgan spokesperson Debbie Harbin told WKRG that, ‘The chair was around its head when they found it.’
She added that, judging by the barnacles on the chair, it had been in the water for quite some time before resurfacing.
‘So much stuff left on the beach washes into the gulf,’ Harbin noted.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the sea turtle has been on the endangered species list since 1970.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service classifies the Kemp’s ridley as being ‘the most endangered of the sea turtles’ and stated that the species has been in decline due largely to human activities, including the harvesting of adults and their eggs, as well as being incidentally captured by commercial fishers.