KATHRINA Southwell from Australian Seabird Rescue celebrated the removal of shark nets from Ballina's beaches at Flat Rock this morning, while the team released a 15kg Green Sea Turtle called Winona.

The turtle was found at Evans Head on March 10 with a fishing line embedded into her right flipper and some trailing from her mouth.

The fishing line was removed, Winona's flipper wounds were flushed daily and she received a course of antibiotics in case of infection.

When Winona first came into care, she weighed 12 kgs.

The hard work volunteers do in helping to rehabilitating the animals includes cleaning out their tanks and pushing their poo through a sieve to inspect it for plastics and other debris.

If there is evidence that the animal has ingested foreign matter they are kept in the hospital for longer to make sure it has cleared through their systems before being released.

Leigha Aitken who has been volunteering with ASR for six months and also volunteers with Sea Shepherd, got the honour of releasing the turtle, which gave her a solid slapping with her flippers on the way.

Ms Aitken was assisted by a comparatively new volunteer Katie Ashton McKenzie and a large crowd gathered to see the animal off.

Ms Southwell encouraged people to fill out the NSW Department of Primary Industries survey on the shark nets and said she was hoping to get the survey extended as it only has two days to go.

The survey can be found on the DPI website.