Illegally placed fishing nets and a dead green sea turtle — Chelonia mydas, an endangered species — were earlier this week found in a designated “demonstration area” for ecological protection in Pingtung County’s South Bay (南灣), divers said yesterday.
Diving coach Yu Chich-hsuan (余致諠) said that on Tuesday morning he encountered an emplacement of drift gill nets when diving in the Tiaoshih Marine Resource Protection Demonstration Area (眺石海洋資源保護示範區), where fishing is banned.
Two other diving coaches, Cheng Tun-chou (鄭敦舟) and Fu Chen-hao (傅貞皓), said they found the body of a green sea turtle that was likely decapitated by the nets’ rigging during its struggle to escape, Yu said.
Photo courtesy of Cheng Tun-chou
The drift net unit was located 100m from shore. The rigging was 25m long and 3m wide, while the turtle was 80cm long and weighed 40kg, Yu said, adding that he estimated the drift nets were anchored more than two weeks prior to his discovery.
Yu said that the divers freed the cadaver from the nets and released it to the sea.
“Conservation enforcement agencies should show more initiative,” he said.
Established as Kenting National Park’s second marine resource protection demonstration area in April 2008, the Tiaoshih ecological protection zone was seen as initially successful because researchers found a marked improvement in the number and variety of ocean life in the area.
However, conservation staff reductions and the influx of tourism to the area in recent years has caused environmental conditions to worsen along with a noticeable increase in illegal fishing, sources said.
Illegal fishing is common in Tiaoshih area, an unnamed diver said.
Since the ecological site is less than 500m from South Bay Recreation Area frequented by tourists, fishing boats do not approach the area, the unnamed diver said.
Instead, illegal fishing is almost entirely done by locals, who know the schedule of conservation patrols and are able to place and harvest drift nets between the patrols’ rounds, the diver said.
“Everybody, except regulators, knows this,” the diver said.
Kenting National Park Headquarters Conservation Section and the Seventh Special Police Corps said in a joint statement that although irregular and random patrols are conducted on a monthly basis, illegal fishing persists.
“We do not tolerate harm to this precious maritime ecological system and conservation patrols will increase their efforts. We call on the public and divers to contact conservation authorities immediately if they discover netting or poaching,” the statement said.
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