Dez
8
Written by:
frank zindel
08.12.2009
Over 100 sea turtles killed in Indonesia!
South Maratua in the Derawan Archipelago, East-Borneo, Indonesia. On November 30 Pak Drepin a local fisherman discovered a huge abandoned fishing net which was partly entangled on the coral reef. When he tried to take the net out of the water he was struck by surprise as the net turned out to be extremely long (approx. 1000 meters long) and contained an enormous number of sea turtles (up to 10 sea turtles per every 20 meters of the net) as well as sharks and other animals inside the net, mostly all of them dead.
On the same day divers from the nearby Nunukan Dive Resort discovered the deadly trap during a dive. Not a nice sight for recreational divers. They immediately cut free and recovered as much of the net as they could until their tanks were empty.
The day after guests and staff from Nunukan and from their sister island Nabucco as well as police army and navy set off to South Maratua to recover the remainder of the net. Whilst they were able to cut free and rescue a few turtles and sharks that were still alive, the overall death toll was terrible.
This is the third known incident of this scale and kind in this relatively small area:
- 2005 a similar net was discovered nearby a popular feeding ground for sea turtles: almost 150 dead sea turtles were recovered from this net.
- 2007 an illegal Chinese fishing boat was controlled. It had nearly 400 dead sea turtles aboard.
- 2009 over 100 sea turtles killed in a large illegal fishing net.
The loss of hundreds of sea turtles since 2005 in this area is most likely only the peak of the iceberg as nobody knows how many illegal sea turtle hunters were successful and remained undiscovered.
The Derawan Archipelago is said to be the most important nesting and feeding area for Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) in South-East Asia. It is well within the so-called Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI). Unless immediate action will be taken to ensure that this area is controlled and protected efficiently similar incidents will be inevitable.
The Turtle Foundation calls on the people in charge of the relvant authorites, of the Coral Triangle Initiative and of the large international NGOs to acknowledge the seriousness of the ongoing threat to the sea turtle population of the Derawan Archipelago and to take appropriate action immediately!
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