Animals left to die on small Sabah isle

Shell shock: Rangers taking photographs of the turtle carcasses on Pulau Tiga.

KOTA KINABALU: Nineteen green turtles whose carcasses were found on a desolate island in northern Sabah are believed to have died cruelly.

Wildlife investigators believed that poachers had caught the turtles and turned them on their back on the uninhabited Pulau Tiga while waiting for buyers.

However, the buyers never came, leaving the turtles to suffer a slow, painful death.

Unlike baby or small turtles, large turtles that have been turned on their back cannot get back on their feet. They can survive for about 10 days to two weeks before they die.

According to a source, the people who were supposed to pick up the turtles did not make it.

A live turtle can fetch more than US$2,000 (RM7,200) and its meat is sold for about US$300 (RM1,080) in markets in China and Vietnam.

He believed the turtles might have died about a week before they were discovered on March 5 by a team of Sabah Wildlife Department and Sabah Parks rangers together with Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency personnel.

The carcasses had been brought to Kota Kinabalu for post mortem.

The Wildlife Department’s West Coast officer Roland Nuin said foreign fishermen might have tried to smuggle the turtles out alive but aborted the plan due to the presence of enforcement personnel.

Nuin said Pulau Tiga was a strategic location for smugglers as it was the closest Malaysian island to the Philippines.

Pulau Tiga is located at Kudat’s northern side of the Balambangan-Banggi channel and is about two hours by speedboat from Karakit, the main town on Banggi island.

Niun said the case was very similar to last year’s discovery of 50 rotting turtles that was highlighted by a Universiti Malaysia Sabah lecturer who was carrying out studies in the area.

Sabah Wildlife Department director William Baya described the deaths as a tragedy and vowed to work with other agencies to bring to book those responsible for the crime.

He said the area was under the Eastern Sabah Security Zone and was also part of the proposed one-million-hectare Tun Mustapha Park marine conservation area.

Those with any information on the case can call the Wildlife Department’s 24-hour hotline at 012-801 9289.