Netizens thank Sri Lankan YouTuber who is single-handedly saving local sea turtles

A Sri Lankan YouTuber who goes by the name Chika Boy has won hundreds of admirers among wildlife lovers around the world. His viral videos of helping local sea turtles get rid of pesky crustaceans have been viewed lakhs of times with praise being showered from the animal love.

In his videos, Chika Boy carefully shaves off barnacles clinging to sea turtles with a large knife. One he is done with his arduous work; he takes the turtles back to the beach where they slowly go back into the ocean.

Chika Boy has posted a number of such videos where he rescues sea turtles, frees them of barnacles before sending them back into the water. The vulnerable sea turtles have found a hero in this self-less animal lover.

What are Barnacles?

As Chika Boy explains in his videos, barnacles belong to the group of animals called crustaceans. This group also includes craps, lobsters and shrimps.

A highly specialized form of crustaceans, barnacles live by attaching themselves to all kinds of things like ships and rocks as well as living species from whales to poor sea turtles. They need hard surfaces to bind to and the shells of sea turtles provide the perfect terrain.

While a one-off barnacle attaching itself to a sea turtle isn’t harmful, an excessive amount can be detrimental for the aquatic creatures. As the YouTuber explains, it can “make a turtle inactive, impact its vision, make eating difficult, and sometimes lead to infection.”

“Excessive barnacles on a turtle’s shell are a sign of bad health. Excessive barnacles are an indicator of a slow and inactive turtle. The overloading of barnacles will prevent the turtle from moving and swimming properly. Then turtle will become slower than usual because of increased weight on the turtle’s shell, it will find it difficult to search for food,” Chika Boy continues to explain, “Also, if the barnacles are attached near the turtle’s eyes, its vision will get impacted. Barnacles attached near the mouth of the turtle are also harmful. The turtle will not be able to eat properly due to excessive barnacles.”

His videos have hundreds of grateful comments from netizens. One of the viewers wrote in YouTube comments, “This man is an angel. He deserves a million likes for this.” Dozens of others thanked Chika Boy for saving the turtles and showered their blessings on him.

Here's a video showing Chika Boy helping the poor creatures back to action:

Chika Boy, an animal lover, regularly posts such videos of helping sea turtles as well as other animals which you can check out on his YouTube channel.