Heartbreaking moment turtle chokes on plastic as horrific scale of ocean pollution exposed

Heartbreaking footage captured a turtle choking on plastic in water off Hawaii (Image: SWNS)

Heartbreaking footage of a turtle choking on a piece of plastic lays bare the devastating impact of pollution in the world's oceans.

Diver Brittany Ziegler, 34, captured the moment during a livestream about a plastic clear-up in Oahu, Hawaii, on Earth Day.

Up to 23 million tonnes of plastic waste is dumped into lakes, rivers and seas each year, according to the UN.

Ziegler - who streams her dives on her Instagram and TikTok (@divedivelive) - said: "Over 100 people showed up and we cleared up a few thousand pounds worth of plastic out of the ocean.

"Whilst we were live streaming the clean up to thousands of people on my TikTok, this beautiful green sea turtle slowly approached us and spat this plastic out.

Brittany Ziegler streamed the clip live on Earth Day (Image: SWNS)

"We were on Oahu for a weekend pledge against plastics so it was ironic that we captured that awful footage of the turtle on that day.

"I just thought you poor baby, we don't know how much plastic she could've had in her stomach either.

"She just swam right up to us, looked in the camera and spat the plastic right out. It was like she was trying to tell us something.

"They love to eat jellyfish and they just can't tell the difference."

UN statistics indicate around 2,000 bin lorries worth of waste is dumped into the world's waters.

One in three fish caught for human consumption contain plastic.

Government data from 2018 suggests 100,000 marine mammals and one million sea birds are killed by marine plastic pollution every year.