Kendrapara: At least 600 Olive Ridley turtles and two dolphins have been washed ashore in the last couple of days in this district, a report said.
Forest officials have recovered the carcasses from the beach from Hukitola to Eakakula in the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary. This huge number of deaths of the marine animals has spread resentment among animal lovers. It is suspected that the turtles were killed after being hit by fishing trawlers or entangled in nets.
Though there is a prohibition on fishing in 20 km off the coast in Gahirmatha, the trawler operators continue fishing illegally. The forest officials have failed to check this illegality.
The state government has imposed a ban on fishing activities inside the marine sanctuary from November 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019 to protect the endangered marine turtles. Forest officials have arrested around 380 fishermen and seized 83 fishing vessels on the charges of illegally fishing in Gahirmatha.
The mass deaths of Olive Ridley turtles comes close on the heels of the seizure of 380 dolphins from a trawler and arrest of eight Andhra fishermen while they were taking the dolphins illegally in Gahirmatha.
The endangered turtles in large number come to Gahirmatha, the world’s largest rockery of the species.
PNN