Marine biologist discovers turtle, shark slaughter in Maldives’ UNESCO biosphere reserve
17 Sep 2012, 8:04 PM
A marine biologist working in the Baa Atoll UNESCO Biosphere Reserve has reported the discovery of the remains of a baby shark and endangered sea turtle barbecue on the uninhabited island of Funadhoo, one of the country’s 14 priority nesting beaches legally protected under Maldivian law.
Marine biologist with local environmental consultancy Seamarc, Sylvia Jagerroos, was participating in a beach clean up on August 24 with local people when the group came across the scene.
“We had removed fishing lines, nets, and other marine debris and of course all the garbage from the beach. This consisted mainly of plastic bottles, and that day we found many red bull cans,” she said.
The group then discovered the slaughtered remains of a large, one metre adult nesting green turtle and 2-3 newborn lemon sharks, “still smoking on the barbecue”, surrounded by smashed eggshells.
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