Although a piece of plastic was pulled from the six-foot long leatherback turtle’s gut, it was human boating activity that is feared to have doomed the magnificent marine creature. Having made it across the Atlantic from the Caribbean, the female turtle is suspected of dying in British waters before her body was washed ashore by summer storms at Marazion over the weekend. Warm summer conditions have seen a surfeit of jellyfish around British coasts in recent weeks, providing perfect food for tropical turtles and sunfish. Yet transparent plastic bags can easily be mistaken as the ghostly forms of jellyfish, putting turtles at risk of eating them and blocking their digestive systems.

The turtle rots away after likely falling victim to plastic pollution and a boat propeller

Virtually all turtles examined around the world are showing signs of having eaten plastic, although the Cornish turtle is feared to have been hit by the sharp, swirling blades of a boat propeller. This likely reason for the demise to the leatherback is being postulated after team from the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus carried out a post mortem, leading to calls for boat users to be vigilant. Professor Brendan Godley, leader of the university’s marine strategy and a former veterinarian, is co-ordinating the investigation. He explained: “Prior to her death she was in good condition and had eaten relatively soon before dying.

A piece of plastic was pulled from the six-foot long leatherback turtle’s gut

"She showed no obvious entanglement injuries but had deep cuts across her shell that are consistent with propeller wounds. “It is not 100 per cent sure that these wounds happened prior to death, but such injuries do point to a possible cause. “It has been a warm summer and, as Lewis Pugh has been finding out in his Channel Swim, there are many jellyfish around. "This means that there are likely to be more leatherbacks and sunfish which will stay in the area.