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Taiwan plans sanctuary to protect rare turtles
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Taiwan is to set up its first turtle sanctuary, officials said yesterday, after the second seizure within weeks of more than 2,000 of the protected creatures, bound for dinner plates on China’s mainland.
Taiwan’s coast guard discovered on Saturday 2,439 Asian yellow pond and yellow-lined box turtles in a fishing boat in Tungkang, a port in the southern region of Pingtung.
The skipper of the boat, bound for the mainland, and three Indonesian crew were arrested. They could face jail terms of up to five years plus a fine of up to NT$1.5 million (US$50,300), according to Taiwan’s wildlife protection law.
The coast guard seized 2,626 rare turtles on board another boat last month as they were being taken off the island, in what the authorities said was their biggest-ever seizure of smuggled turtles.
The reptiles were meant for by wealthy Chinese or used as an ingredient for traditional medicine, officials said.
The new sanctuary will open in October on the Feitsui reservoir outside Taipei.
“The preservation of rare turtles in the (reservoir) area is already relatively better (than other areas of Taiwan),” said Kuan Li-hao, an official of the forestry bureau. “Once the sanctuary is set up, patrols will be stepped up there to deter poaching.”
Because the number of wild turtles is in sharp decline on the mainland, market prices have surged to about five times those of Taiwan, which is separated by a 200-kilometer strait from the mainland.
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