29 Mar 2007 - Kota Kinabalu,
Malaysia – Malaysian authorities have seized
several Chinese fishing boats off the northern
coast of Borneo carrying cargoes of endangered
marine turtles.
On 26 March, a boat carrying 72 mixed green
and hawksbill turtles was apprehended and
six people arrested. Three days later poachers
were caught red-handed with a larger cargo
of 220 green and hawksbill turtles.
All species of marine turtles found in
the waters of Malaysia's Sabah Province
are protected under the Fisheries Act and
the Wildlife Enactment laws. Violations
of the Wildlife Enactment carry a penalty
up to MYR50,000 (US$14,500) and/or five
years in jail.
“We commend the success of the Sabah Marine
Police and encourage them and other enforcement
agencies to continue their efforts,” said
Chris Shepherd, Senior Programme Officer
for TRAFFIC South-east Asia.
“We urge the authorities to prosecute these
poachers to the full extent of the law.
If there is no deterrent, killing of these
endangered species will continue unabated.”
WWF-Malaysia and TRAFFIC South-east Asia
are encouraging the authorities to return
any surviving turtles from the latest seizures
to the wild as soon as possible.
Hawksbill and green turtles are among the
five species found in Malaysian waters.
Their survival is threatened by habitat
loss, fishing activities and international
trade.
This is not the first time fishermen from
China have been apprehended in the region
for poaching marine turtles. In May 2004,
marine police arrested 16 fishermen from
Hainan after discovering about 160 dead
turtles aboard a trawler. In 2005, more
than 100 turtles were seized from another
Hainan trawler which encroached into Malaysian
waters off Labuan.
In response to the rising number of such
cases, authorities from the ten-member Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) launched
a wildlife enforcement network to improve
domestic and cross-border efforts to stop
illegal wildlife trade.
WWF-Malaysia hopes the governments of Indonesian,
Malaysia, and the Philippines will address
this issue of foreign fleets poaching marine
turtles during a marine ecoregion meeting
this April in Kota Kinabalu, Indonesia.
END NOTES:
• All marine turtles are listed on Appendix
I of the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora (CITES). The listing prohibits marine
turtles from being taken across international
borders, except under very special circumstances,
with permits, and not for commercial trade.
• TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring
network — a joint programme of WWF and IUCN
— works to ensure that trade in wild plants
and animals is not a threat to the conservation
of nature.
Eza Dzul Karnain, Media & Public Affairs
Coordinator
WWF-Malaysia
Chris Shepherd, Senior Programme Officer
TRAFFIC Southeast Asia
