Green sea turtle found dead in Bohol

TAGBILARAN CITY- A green sea turtle was found dead  in Barangay West-Lungsodaan in Garcia Hernandez town on Wednesday.

Residents of Sitio Camarus noticed the dead green sea turtle in the shoreline on Wednesday noon.

"It smells bad since it's decomposing," said resident John Brian Galendez who went to the site.

The incident was immediately brought to the attention of the local government of Garcia Hernandez.

The sea turtle measured  71 cm in length and 63 cm in width and was buried along the village shorelines.

The latest find raises concern as last month, seven sea turtles were found dead in Bohol in separate occasions.

In a report by the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP), an autopsy was conducted on two of the seven turtles.

Inside the intestines of the leatherback turtle that was discovered in Talibon and in the green see turtle that was found in Maribojoc town were three pieces of plastic bags, a meter long of nylon fishing line, unraveled threads of nylon rope, candy wrapper, part of a biscuit wrapper and several shorter strands of thin nylon lines.

The necropsy procedures on the leatherback turtle and the green sea turtle were conducted by Dr. Jo Marie Acebes, senior museum researcher of NMP in Tagbilaran and volunteers from non-profit society Balyena.org.ph at the laboratory of the College of Arts and Sciences of Holy Name University, with assistance from their faculty and staff, the Bohol Environment Management Office (BEMO) and DENR-CENRO Tagbilaran and Cortes.

“Although the plastics found inside two of the animals cannot be directly linked to their strandings and eventual deaths, it certainly affected the overall health of the animals. These events are stark reminders of how plastic trash and other non-biodegradable garbage in the seas are harming the marine life in this sea with one of the highest biodiversity in our country,” a portion of Acebes’ report read.

Acebes expressed concern as the strandings of endangered species were reported within a span of only one month. -- BAP, GMA News