Last week, the Protected Area Management Board – Sarangani Bay Protected Seascape just posted their hotline numbers. Immediately, they received three different reports of dead sea turtles on May 3, Friday.
Two olive ridley turtles and a female green sea turtle were reported dead, according to a Facebook post by the Sarangani Bay Protected Seascape – Megafauna Response Team.
First, an olive ridley sea turtle was found dead with an open wound in the base of its left fore flipper along the shores of Brgy. Suli, Kiamba, Sarangani Province. Then, another olive ridley turtle was found very weak and thin, with its carapace heavily covered with algae.
The last one was a female green sea turtle that was already in the state of decomposition when it was found on the shores of Queen Tuna Park in General Santos City. Its intestines were already coming out from an opening and its right fore flipper was missing.
Olive ridley sea turtles are generally found in coastal bays, but their population continues to decrease, according to Sea Turtle Conservancy, because of the direct harvesting of the adults and their eggs, some were captured in commercial fisheries, and the tragic loss of their nesting habitats also serves as a threat.
One of the most recent examples was the green sea turtle who came ashore in the Maldives beach to lay its eggs, only to find a newly built airport runway instead.
Approximately, there are only 800,000 nesting females left. They are currently listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, as they face a high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future.
Related stories:
– DENR released critically endangered turtles in Boracay
– Endangered green sea turtles are making a comeback
– Endangered turtle returns to beach to lay eggs, but finds airport runway instead
