ON Sunday, Aug. 13, Nisha Dubrall and her family helped rescue a green sea turtle tangled in a net at Obyan Beach.
Variety learned about Dubrall’s story after she created a Facebook post documenting the event.
Dubrall said she was snorkeling at Obyan Beach when family members drew her attention to “something big and green floating in the water.”
She said when she approached the net, she noticed a struggling, young sea turtle wrapped in it.
“I was in complete shock when I found the turtle,” Dubrall said. “I tried to untangle the net from the rock it was stuck to but the water was rough and there were several sea urchins surrounding me so I was struggling badly.”
Dubrall said family members used a knife to cut the net, adding that she did her best to gently free the animal as part of the net was “buried deep in its neck.”
Eventually, the turtle was freed.
By Dubrall’s estimate, the net was over 40 feet long. Because of the water trapped in the net, it took five people to drag it out.
“Seeing how careless someone could be with such a harmful piece of trash was truly upsetting to my family and I,” Dubrall said. “The whole time we were struggling to bring up the net we just kept thinking of who would have the nerve to leave this in the ocean.”
Dubrall said she and her family are at Obyan Beach “almost every weekend,” but this is the first time she had seen such a net.
According to the CNMI Division of Fish and Wildlife’s website, only cast nets or talaya and scoop nets may be used to fish in CNMI waters.
Drag nets, surround nets, and trap nets — also known as chenchulu — as well as gill nets or tekkeng are not permissible in the CNMI.
Dubrall said her family removed the net from the beach. They plan to repurpose it as a batting cage.
This net was found by Nisha Dubrall and her family over the weekend at Obyan Beach.
