As Sri Lanka struggles with ghost nets, volunteer youth lead seabed cleanup

COLOMBO —Galle Face Beach in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital, Colombo, is a popular spot among city dwellers, watched over by lifeguards assigned by the coast guard unit of the Sri Lanka Navy. But one Sunday morning, lifeguard Chamara Vipulasena’s rescue wasn’t a human swimmer, but a sea turtle entangled in a drifting fishing net. Vipulasena had to swim about 150 meters (492 feet) from shore to reach the struggling turtle. “The net was old and covered with algae, suggesting it had been drifting for some time,” he told Mongabay. The exhausted young olive ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) sported deep cuts on its flippers and head, from its struggle to break free from the nylon threads. The turtle could have been floating with the net without feeding for days, Vipulasena said. The turtle