Turtle deaths rising due to stingray demand

Cruel fate: The carcass of a young turtle found by Sharifah Ruqaiyah on an island in Terengganu where fishermen used to dump the dead animals. — WWF-Malaysia

EXCLUSIVE: DUNGUN: Terengganu’s iconic mascot, the turtle, is dying. The irony – it is not being killed or hunted but has become the victim of the hunger for another marine creature, the stingray.

Metres of illegal nets (pukat pari), laid out to catch stingrays along the shores of the state – some as close as 30m from the beach – are also trapping and drowning the turtles.