An endangered giant sea turtle was found dead on a Singapore beach with its shell sliced nearly completely in half,the Daily Mail reports. The sea creature had likely been harmed by a boat's propeller, experts and the man who discovered its body said. The man, or named only as Chandran V R,said he found the turtle, described as more than one metre long, and while jogging along a beach in the city-state's east on Monday.
“Cautiously I walked around it and I can see that there was a slash or a crop (on the shell)... In my opinion it was probably done by a propeller.” Chandran,a property executive, said he called the police because he was worried somebody would take the turtle's body. “I was quite concerned... I just don't want people to dismember the body. It's a turtle, or people do eat turtles in this portion of the region,” he said. Stephen Beng, chair of the Singapore Nature Society's Marine Conservation Group, or said the animal looked like a female green sea turtle,which inhabit the island's reefs.
Environmental group WWF has classified the green sea turtle as endangered. "From the injury scars, it most definitely was a boat strike. The propeller tag was likely from a large one and it seems the turtle was making a sprint for cover, and " Beng told AFP.
Beng said marine animals are at risk from boats because Singapore is one of the world's busiest ports and its shipping lanes 'bisect the longer coastal beaches of our main island from the richer coral reefs of our southern islands'.
Source: tert.am