Gisele Bundchen Rescues Sea Turtle Caught in Net

Supermodel Gisele Bündchen, a longtime environmental activist, saved a sea turtle from certain death after it had become entangled in fish nets and was lying upside down on a beach.

While taking a walk recently with her dog on the beach where she appears to be vacationing with her family, Bundchen came upon the helpless animal and acted quickly to save it, returning it to the sea.

But it wasn’t easy, since the turtle was almost too heavy for her to lift.

At first she had thought that the bunch of netting and the turtle under it was simply a pile of flotsam that had washed up on the beach.

It was last Saturday, Dec. 4, when the 41-year-old model and mother of two, who is married to the American football quarterback Tom Brady, performed the act of kindness for the helpless turtle that she discovered under the netting.

Gisele Bundchen takes immediate action to rescue animal

She later posted a video on Instagram showing the feat and how she had loosened the nets which had imprisoned the animal.

Bundchen can be heard speaking Portuguese with someone who may be one of her sisters as she works to free the turtle. The family’s dog, Onyx, watches the action from behind her.

After successfully loosening the animal from the netting, she first allows it to get its bearings, as it flaps its flippers in apparent relief. The model and activist then — with apparent great effort — carries the heavy turtle back to the waves, where it swims away.

In her Instagram post, Bunchen remarks “It’s amazing how adrenaline can make you stronger!”

In the video, which she shared on Instagram, Bundchen noted that other wildlife in the world’s seas and oceans often aren’t nearly this fortunate. “There are so many other animals that unfortunately end up dying on nets like this,” she wrote in the caption.

“Today I was reminded that we must become more aware of our ways as a species and help protect all animals, it’s our choice.”

She shared with the public how the entire event had unfolded — in both English and Portuguese — relating that she had been walking on the beach when her dog suddenly began barking at what she thought was “a pile of ocean trash” that had come ashore during the previous high tide.

“When I came closer I saw this beautiful turtle turned upside down with a look of hopelessness and exhaustion in her eyes, her body knotted and entangled in a fishing net,” Bundchen stated.

“I immediately started to free her from the net that was strangling her, but even after we got her untied, she was too tired to make her way back to the ocean.”

There was no time to waste, she explained. “I didn’t think twice, I just picked her up and carry her to the water,” Bundchen stated, adding “I felt relieved and so happy to see her swim away freely, grateful that I was there and able to help.”

A longtime animal rights and environmental activist, Bundchen had incredibly chosen a sea turtle as her “kindred species” when she took part of the U.N.’s ‘Wild For Life’ campaign in 2016.

She told all her social media followers after the exciting rescue that they must take care of the animals that live near them, wherever they may be, saying “I pray that we can all rise and remember that the opportunity to change begins with a single act.”