Japanese police found at least 30 endangered green sea turtles on Thursday bleeding from neck wounds off Japan’s remote island of Kumejima, CNN reported.
Police began investigating the case last Friday after sea turtles were found at low tide, a police official said. The official said some of the turtles were bleeding and barely breathing and had cuts on their necks from what appeared to be an attempted slaughter. He added that the location of the turtles is currently unknown, and it is likely that they were swept away by the current. The official said police are continuing to investigate and interview witnesses.
Yoshi Tsukakushi, a spokesman for the Kumejima Sea Turtle Museum, said the area where the sea turtles were found is their natural habitat and is covered in algae that the turtles eat. He added that sea turtles can struggle in nets set up by local fishermen and can be considered a “nuisance” because they tear the nets.
“Some fishermen believe that the turtles eat all the algae before they grow, and this prevents the fish from breeding in the area,” Tsukakushi said.
All species of sea turtles are considered endangered and listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, and they are protected worldwide, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature, an international non-governmental organization. But it is under increasing threat due to factors such as coastal development, overfishing and by-catch when turtles are unintentionally caught while hunting other species.
