Dead turtles wash up on Pattaya beach

11 Jul 2011

The corpses of two endangered green turtles were found washed up on a Pattaya beach last week. Hotel security guard Mr Pinet Chiangrum, 48, made the gruesome discovery on the sands outside Pattaya Long Beach Hotel while he was out on patrol.

He called local authorities in and the scene was attended by a Pattaya Radio Sea Rescue (PRSR) squad and a council officer. The two dead reptiles were identified as being of the sub-species Chelonia mydas and were thought to be mother and child.

The council official said the female was around 10 years old and weighed 60kgs, while the infant’s body weighed just one kilogramme. The creatures were believed to have been dead for less than one week and had perished after becoming trapped in a fishing trawler’s nets.

Prior to the turtles’ bodies grounding on the beach, there had been strong winds and high waves. As well as the bodies, there was also a lot of detritus washed up and this included the shell of another as yet unidentified turtle.

The PRSR team collected all the reptile remains up and they were transported to the Pattaya Sea Rescue Centre. A marine biologist will conduct examinations of the corpses in an attempt to ascertain the exact causes of death.

Green turtles were once abundant in the world’s oceans but are facing extinction because of several different human activities. Some die in fishing trawler’s nets and others choke on plastic litter dropped at sea. Beach nesting grounds have been wiped out by resort developments and in some places the turtles’ eggs are harvested for food.

Tags: Dead turtles Pattaya