Police in Vietnam free hundreds of endangered sea turtles

Vietnamese police removed 849 sea turtles from a fish-farming cage of a man who was illegally raising them and released them into a nearby marine preserve, a police official said Friday.

The man had bought the sea turtles several at a time from fishermen, said Vo Duc Thang, chief of police in the coastal city of Nha Trang. He had raised them to maturity in a fish-farming pen in a local bay, intending to sell them for their meat and shells.

The turtles belonged to the species ertemochelys imbricate, also known as the hawksbill turtle. It is considered critically endangered by the World Conservation Union. Privately raising or selling it is prohibited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES…. Read Full Article