As the straw, described as 10-12cm in length, is pulled from the turtle’s nostril with a pair of pliers, blood spills down its nose, and also from its injured shoulders.

Christine Figgener, a field biologist with a research interest in conservation filmed the 8 minute-long extraction operation, which left the turtle bleeding and clearly wincing in pain.

“A group of marine biologists made the video on a boat in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, and posted it on YouTube with the message: “‘NO’ TO PLASTIC STRAWS” alongside an appeal to fund PhD research into sea turtles.

They then set about attempting to remove it with the limited tools at their disposal and discovered that it was in fact a straw. “Plus, we would have incured a penalty on ourselves by removing the turtle since that is beyond our resarch permits”, Figener said. Most people who dump such objects into the sea probably do not imagine that a plastic drinking straw could cause so much agony for a sea animal.

Ms Figgener said the the decision to intervene while at sea was unavoidable.

Writing online the researchers said: ‘He obviously did not enjoy the procedure very much, but we hope that he is now able to breathe more freely.

Others, however have defended their actions saying that the turtle would have eventually died had nothing been done.

“This video shows why plastic rubbish is detrimental to marine life”. After doing so, the group disinfected the turtle’s air passageway with iodine and kept him for observation until the bleeding stopped.

Originally, the scientists studying the sea turtle thought the straw lodged in its nose was a parasitic worm, but as they tried to extract it, it soon became clear that it was actually a piece of trash, according to a description on the YouTube video.