Chinese fishing boat arrested with 400 sea turtles on board.

12/08/2007 00:00:00 May 8, 2007 - KALIMANTAN, INDONESIA
Indonesian customs have arrested the crew of a Chinese turtle boat that was found with 397 dead sea turtles on board, Nono Rachmad Basuki of the Turtle Foundation reports.

The boat, name Hainan 02099, was sailing under a Chinese flag with a crew of 22. On the 8th of May the boat was discovered and stopped by Indonesian customs. The customs officers spotted the dead sea turtles on the boat so Indonesia’s National Office for the Environment (KSDA) was informed. The Chinese boat was taken to the port of Tarakan.

It can be clearly seen that the boat was equipped for catching turtles. Turtles are still hunted extensively for their meat and shells, their eggs are collected for food and many thousands of turtles are caught as ‘by-catch’ in other fisheries. Turtles have been hunted for many centuries, but it only in the last 20-30 years that their populations have crashed. Of the seven sea turtle species, 3 are critically endangered, 3 are endangered and 1 has unknown status.

A year ago in two separate incidents, 2 boats carrying a total of 450 turtles were arrested in Malaysia and Indonesia.

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