KUALA TERENGGANU – Another green turtle carcass was found washed up on Pantai Teluk Bidara near Dungun today.
It was believed to have been intentionally harmed, Abidah Zaaba, the Lang Tengah Turtle Watch conservation project manager at the Tg Jara Resort, here, said.
Abidah said she received a call from the public at 8am and rushed to the beach, where she found that the dead turtle had been tied down with bricks in an attempt to weigh it down to the seabed.
“This irresponsible act may have been the work of fishermen who want to prevent turtles from accidentally getting entangled in their nets.
“But it’s difficult to determine right now if the turtle was alive or dead when it sunk to the bottom of the sea,” she said when contacted today.
Last Thursday, a female green turtle was found dead floating in the waters off Pulau Kapas near Marang with a cut on its neck, believed to be an easy way out for fishermen to save their nets.
Abidah said the carcass that was found this morning is believed to have died about a week ago.
“We estimate its age to be between 15 and 20-years-old, but its gender could not be identified because the tail part has rotted badly,” she said, while hoping that strict action would be taken soon to ensure that such turtle deaths do not happen again. – Bernama, July 23, 2022
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