"Scuba Do Zanzibar had an amazing "Earth Day" experience on the 22 April 2010. We rescued what appeared to be a lifeless, green turtle caught in a fishing net. It was an emotional effort involving mouth-to-nose resuscitation (not sure if it helped), but the turtle took it's first gasping breath as we lifted it onto the boat! Turtle recovered well in the Mnarani Aquarium for a couple days and was released on our Tanzanian National Turtle (KASA) Day which was on the 24th April. Thank you to the rescue team Amy Walton, Jan Luyckx, Julia Bishop, Jessie Greenspan, our boat captains and the Mnarani Aquarium team!!"

This beautiful green turtle was captured by fishermen who were demanding a ransom from the tourists to free it. It was put into a boat and anchored with a rope to a rock on the bottom of the intertidal zone in an attempt to collect money to say it was set free. After a lengthy negotiation, we were able to get posession of the turtle and in collaboration with our Department of Fisheries we took it to the Mnarani Aquarium while the case was followed.

Scuba Do would like to thank everyone involved in saving this beautiful sea turtle! She was captured on the 22nd of January with a fishing hook through her neck, recovered in the Mnarani Aquarium in Nungwi and was released by 16 environmentally minded students from the International School of Tanganyika, Dar es Salaam on the 19th of February.

The Mnarani Marine Turtle Conservation Pond is a community based NGO established in 1993 as an effort to conserve the population of sea turtles native to Zanzibar island. The Stone Town based Eco & Culture Tours NGO was the initiator of this project, and empowered the local villagers to take this conservation initiative into their own hands. Hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) have traditionally been hunted around Zanzibar for their attractive shells, and Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) for their meat.

After seabirds, sea turtles are the most affected by plastics in the oceans. Over 500,000,000 plastic straws are produced every day, only to be used for a couple of minutes. Eventually, MOST of these straws end up in our OCEANS, adding to the BILLIONS of tons of RUBBISH already there. So, the next time that you are offered a STRAW, please consider REFUSING it!