A frustrated fisher has confessed that he stabbed to death dozens of protected sea turtles on a southern Japanese island after they were caught in his fishing nets, local officials said yesterday.
Between 30 to 50 green sea turtles were on Thursday last week found dead or dying, with stab wounds on their necks and elsewhere, on a beach on remote Kumejima (Kume Island), about 1,600km southwest of Tokyo.
It was “an extremely grisly scene,” said Yoshimitsu Tsukakoshi, a senior staff member at Kumejima Umigame-kan, a local sea turtle conservation body.
“Sea turtles are gentle creatures and they move away when humans approach them,” Tsukakoshi said. “I couldn’t believe it could happen in this day and age.”
Yuji Tabata, head of the local fishers’ cooperative, said that the man responsible has confessed to stabbing the animals after dozens become tangled in his gillnet.
The fisher, whose name has not been released, told the cooperative that he released many of the tangled-up turtles, but after struggling with the animals, he began stabbing them to try to weaken them.
“He said he has never seen so many turtles on his nets. He regrets it now,” Tabata said. “He said he felt in physical danger.”
The local town government and police are investigating the deaths, a municipal official said, declining to say whether the fisher could face penalties.
An editorial in the local Okinawa Times newspaper yesterday condemned the deaths and the manner in which the protected animals were left to perish on the beach.
It also urged local officials to consider claims by fishers that turtles are causing economic damage.
Local reports said some fishers in the area believe the turtle population is increasing. The creatures can collide with fishing boats, injuring themselves and damaging the crafts’ propellers.
Tabata said the community is also concerned that turtles are eating the seagrass that is home to the fish they depend on for their livelihoods.
“We are in the process of coming up with ideas so that this doesn’t happen again,” he said.
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