56 sea turtles found dead in Terengganu this year

KUALA TERENGGANU A total of 56 turtles were found dead in Terengganu from January to October this year.

Terengganu Agriculture, Food Industry, Plantation, Commodity and Rural Development exco Dr Azman Ibrahim said the number increased slightly compared to 51 turtle deaths last year.

He said the turtle carcasses were found in several circumstances such as being trapped in trawling nets, and ropes that swirled around the carcass as well as being stranded on the beach.

“Other than that, there are cases where rocks are tied to the carcasses of turtles aimed at drowning dead turtles at the bottom of the ocean,” he said.

He had responded to a question by Roslee Daud (BN-Bukit Besi) at the State Assembly session here on Tuesday.

However, he said, there was no specific evidence to conclude that the death of the turtle was caused by stingray nets or fishing nets but instead it could be concluded that it was committed by humans.

Dr Azman explained that to address the problem, the state government through the Department of Fisheries conducted an enforcement operation with 37 stingray trawls successfully seized at the fishing base of Kemaman and Dungun districts this year.

He said enforcement operations against fishermen who encroached on the turtle sanctuary area from Kuala Merchang, Marang to Tanjung Jara, Dungun were also carried out.

As a result, he said a total of 18 fishermen comprising two locals and 16 foreigners based in Pahang were arrested under the Fisheries Act 1985.

Dr Azman said other efforts were made to rescue turtles that were stranded on the beach and were unable to swim back to the sea.

“This year, six-stranded turtles were rescued.

Another step taken by the government is to implement law enforcement under the Terengganu Turtle Conservation Enactment 1951 (Amendment 2021) with tougher penalties for offences involving turtle deaths, he said.