TOKYO: A frustrated angler has confessed that he stabbed to dying dozens of protected ocean turtles on a southern Japanese island once they got caught in the fishing nets, local officials say.
Between 30 to 50 eco-friendly sea turtles were found dead or dying last Thurs (Jul 14), with stab wounds on their necks and somewhere else, on a beach within remote Kumejima tropical isle, some 1, 600km south-west of Tokyo.
It was “an extremely grisly scene”, according to Yoshimitsu Tsukakoshi, a senior employee at Kumejima Umigame-kan, a local sea turtle conservation body.
“Sea turtles are usually gentle creatures and they also move away whenever humans approach all of them, ” Tsukakoshi told AFP on Tuesday.
“I didn’t want to believe it could happen in this day and age. ”
Yuji Tabata, the head of the local fishermen’s cooperative, informed AFP that the man responsible has confessed to stabbing the animals after a bunch become tangled in the gillnet.
The fisherman, whose title has not been released, informed the cooperative which he released many of the tangled-up turtles, but right after struggling with the animals, he began stabbing these to try and weaken them.
“He mentioned he has never observed so many turtles on his nets. He misgivings it now, inch Tabata said.
“He said this individual felt in bodily danger. ”
The local town government and police are usually investigating the fatalities, a municipal official told AFP, decreasing to say whether the fisherman could face penalties over the incident.
An editorial in the local Okinawa Times newspapers on Tuesday ruined the deaths as well as the manner in which the safeguarded animals were left to perish for the beach.
Additionally, it urged local authorities to consider claims simply by fishermen that turtles are causing financial damage.
Local reports said some fishermen in the area believe the turtle people is increasing.
The creatures may collide with fishing boats, injuring themselves plus damaging the crafts’ propellers.
Tabata said the community can also be concerned that turtles are eating the seagrass that is home to the fish these people depend on for their livelihood.
He anxious that the incident was rare and fishermen regularly untangle turtles caught in their lines.
“We have been in the process of coming up with suggestions so that this doesn’t occur again, ” he added.