Marine turtles are occasional visitors to UK waters. Their welfare is threatened by bycatch entanglement and plastic ingestion.
Marine turtle welfare in UK waters centres on entanglement and plastic ingestion. Entangled turtles can drown or suffer amputations from constricting lines. Cold-stunned turtles that arrive in winter are in life-threatening hypothermia and require specialist rehabilitation. Plastic bag ingestion causes gut obstruction, starvation, and death over days to weeks. The welfare of individual turtles in UK waters is manageable through responsive reporting and rescue, but the larger welfare issue requires reducing plastic pollution and developing turtle-safe fishing gear across their entire North Atlantic range.