At least 30 endangered green sea turtles were found on Thursday with sores on their necks near the remote Japanese island of Kumejima in southern Okinawa Prefecture.
Police began investigating the case last Friday after the sea turtles were found during low tide, according to an officer at the Naha Police Station in Okinawa.
Some of the turtles were bleeding and breathing poorly, the official said. They had wounds on their necks from what appeared to be a blade.
He added that the whereabouts of the turtles are currently unknown, and it is possible they were swept away by the tide.
Police continue to investigate and are questioning witnesses, the official said.
The area where the turtles were found is their natural habitat and is covered in grass that the species feeds on, said Yoshi Tsukakoshi, a spokesperson for the Kumejima sea turtle museum.
He added that sea turtles can get entangled in nets placed by local fishermen, and that they can be considered a “nuisance” because they end up tearing them.
“Some fishermen think that turtles eat all the seagrass before they grow and that prevents fish from spawning in the area,” Tsukakoshi said.
All sea turtle species are considered endangered and are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. They are protected worldwide, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), an international non-governmental organization.
But they are under increasing threat from factors such as coastal development, overfishing and bycatch – when turtles are unwittingly caught while fishing for other species.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
