Dozens Of Endangered Green Sea Turtles Found With Stab Wounds Around Neck In Japan

At least 30 endangered green sea turtles were found with what appeared to be stab wounds off the beach of a remote Japanese island.

Police said the wounds seemed to have been caused by a blade.

The creatures were found by locals on Kumejina island on Thursday during low tide, BBC reported. Cops were informed and began investigating the circumstances Friday.

A police official from the Naha Police Station in Okinawa said some of the turtles were bleeding and barely breathing. Many appeared to have been stabbed and had wounds around their necks.

The official also said the current location of the turtles is unknown; investigators believe the tide may have swept their bodies away.

Sea turtles often get entangled in nets while local fishers are at sea. The creatures could become a "nuisance" as they may tear the fishers' nets apart, said Yoshi Tsukakoshi, a spokesman at the Kumejima sea turtle museum, according to CNN.

The wounded sea turtles were discovered in an area that is considered to be their natural habitat, covered with seagrass.

"Some fishers think the turtles eat all the seagrass before it grows and that prevents the fish from spawning in the area," Tsukakoshi added.

One fishing operator said the wounded turtles had earlier gotten caught in their fishing nets. The fishing operator also admitted to wounding the turtles to remove them from the nets, a source said, according to The Mainichi.

"A lot of them were tangled up in fishing nets. I disentangled some of them and released them into the sea, but I couldn't free heavy ones, so I stabbed them to get rid of them,” the fishing operator reportedly said, according to the source.

Following the news of the turtles’ discovery, marine biologists and staff members working with the Sea Turtle Museum on the island rushed to the scene.

“Many of the turtles appeared dead. I have never seen anything like this before,” a museum employee told the Asahi Shimbun. “It is extremely difficult to process this.”

Police are investigating the incident as a suspected case of animal cruelty.

Authorities in Japan and international conservation groups have listed green sea turtles as endangered species. They are increasingly under threat due to various factors, including overfishing and development along the coast. Turtles accidentally getting caught in fishing nets is also a factor further threatening these creatures.