The body of the green sea turtle has completely decomposed but the plastic netting believed to have killed it remains intact around its empty shell months later, a recently released photograph shows.

The image was taken by a film crew making an ocean documentary while shooting on location at the Cape York Peninsular in Australia.

They released the image to raise awareness of the issue of "ghost netting".

The picture is taken from the upcoming environmental film Blue, which will be shown at the Ocean Film Festival UK & Ireland Tour.

Rosie Fuller, 36, tour coordinator, said: “These pictures show the horrific effects of plastic pollution and ghost nets on marine life and the world’s oceans.

“Blue highlights issues faced by marine life around the globe, often in wild and remote places that you would imagine are untouched by the modern world.

“The reality is very different.”

One of the images appears to show a turtle that became trapped in ghost netting before landing on a deserted beach at Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, Australia.

Unable to free itself, the turtle died and decomposed on the beach with the net still firmly lodged around its shell, filmmakers believe.

“Over the past decade it’s thought that 10,000 turtles have been impacted by the ghost nets off northern Australia alone," Ms Fuller added.

“The drifting nets capture all kinds of sea life, but turtles are the most affected as they swim and feed in the currents that carry the nets.

“They have no chance once they are caught in the nets, and can drift for days before eventually drowning.”

The other two images show a river of plastic and a tide of carrier bags floating beneath the ocean's surface, both taken in Indonesia.

“Currently just under 60 per cent of seabirds have ingested plastic [and] this figure is expected to rise to 99 per cent by 2050," Ms Fuller said.

“Often a bird will be killed by its parent, which has accidentally brought plastic items to their chicks, mistaking them for food.

“Dr Jennifer Lavers, who works with seabirds on the remote Lord Howe Island in the South Pacific, explains in Blue that she has found baby birds with more than 275 pieces of plastic in their stomachs.

“If not fatal, this can cause them to be drastically underweight and undersized, with stunted wings – not a good start for their 5,000km migration.

“Half of all marine life has been lost in the last 40 years. Fish populations are in decline.

“Around one in four species of sharks, rays and skates is now threatened with extinction, due primarily to overfishing.

“By 2050 there will be more plastic in the sea than fish. There’s a plastic cesspool in our seas and it’s doubling in size every 10 years.

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A father and son on a makeshift boat made from styrofoam paddle through a garbage filled river as they collect plastic bottles that they can sell in junkshops in Manila. The father and son team earn some three US dollars a day retrieving recyclables from the river. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A composite image of items found on the shore of the Thames Estuary in Rainham, Kent. Tons of plastic and other waste lines areas along the Thames Estuary shoreline, an important feeding ground for wading birds and other marine wildlife. Getty Images Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children collect plastic water bottles among the garbage washed ashore at the Manila Bay. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, at current rates of pollution, there will likely be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastics and other detritus line the shore of the Thames Estuary. In December 2017 Britain joined the other 193 UN countries and signed up to a resolution to help eliminate marine litter and microplastics in the sea. It is estimated that about eight million metric tons of plastic find their way into the world's oceans every year. Once in the Ocean plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade, all the while breaking down into smaller and smaller 'microplastics,' which can be consumed by marine animals, and find their way into the human food chain. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A dump site in Manila in 2013. The Philippines financial capital banned disposable plastic shopping bags and styrofoam food containers, as part of escalating efforts across the nation's capital to curb rubbish that exacerbates deadly flooding. AFP/Getty Images Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children swims in the sea full of garbage in North Jakarta, Indonesia. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures An Indian woman holds a jar filled with Yamuna river water polluted with froth and toxic foam to be used for rituals at the river bank in New Delhi, India. The Yamuna River, like all other holy rivers in India, has been massively polluted for decades now. The river that originates in a glacier in the pristine and unpolluted Himalayas, and flows through Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh before merging with the Ganges River in Allahabad, once used to be the lifeline of the Indian capital. Currently, it is no more than a large, open sewer that is choking with industrial and domestic discharge that includes plastic, flowers and debris and has virtually no aquatic life. EPA Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastic waste is washed up on South Troon beach in Scotland. Recent reports by scientists have confirmed, plastics dumped in the world oceans are reaching a dangerous level with micro plastic particles now being found inside filter feeding animals and amongst sand grains on our beaches. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children collect plastic to be sold and recycled, in a polluted river in suburban Manila. The city's trash disposal agency traps solid waste floating down waterways that was thrown into the water by residents of slums along riverbanks upstream. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures View of the Carpayo Beach in La Punta, Callao, some 15 km of Lima. In 2013, the NGO VIDA labeled the Carpayo Beach as the most polluted in the country - 40 tons of trash on each 500m2. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Trash from Kamilo Beach in Hawaii. Gabriella Levine/Flickr Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A scavenger collects plastic cups for recycling in a river covered with rubbish near Pluit dam in Jakarta. Reuters Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Rubbish fills Omoa beach in Honduras. Floating masses of garbage offshore from some of the Caribbean's pristine beaches are testimony to a vast and growing problem of plastic pollution heedlessly dumped in our oceans, locals, activists and experts say. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A man climbs down to a garbage filled river in Manila. Plastic rubbish will outweigh fish in the oceans by 2050 unless the world takes drastic action to recycle the material, a report warned in 2016. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Garbage on East Beach, Henderson Island (Pitcairn Islands), in the south Pacific Ocean. The uninhabited island has been found to have the world's highest density of waste plastic, with more than 3,500 additional pieces of litter washing ashore daily at just one of its beaches. EPA

“The statistics are dark, but Blue shows that there is a way forward, and the time to act is now.

“All around the world people are making the decision to protect our oceans, and you can join them.”

Blue is showing as part of the Ocean Film Festival World Tour, coming to venues around the UK and Ireland this autumn.

Ocean Film Festival World Tour is committed to keeping the vent as environmentally friendly as possible.

As such, they will be working with each of the venues they visit to try and eliminate single-use plastic from the shows.

The film crew released other images which highlight the problem of plastic pollution.

Taken on remote and wild islands, each picture illustrates how areas that are untouched by mankind are still badly affected by the scourge of plastic pollution.

Ranging from Hawaii to Indonesia, beaches are covered in plastic and litter and water inlets are clogged with discarded litter.

One image shows a seal cooling off on a beach - surrounded by plastic litter that stretches as far as the eye can see.

Taken on a remote Hawaiian island, the monk seal can be seen stretching out next to discarded fishing equipment and glass bottles.

With no organised beach cleans, the litter has built up and covers what was once a tranquil and pristine beach.