WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2001
Seized turtles struggle to survive in HK
HONG KONG (AP) - Infested with parasites and suffering from cold and dehydration, thousands of tropical turtles seized from smugglers have been dying as they wait to be flown to a new home in Florida, conservationists say.
Gary Ades, a fauna conservationist, examines a pair of endangered Malaysian giant turtles. AP
Hundreds of tropical black marsh turtles seized from smugglers struggle to survive through Hong Kong's winter in pigpens at Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden, a research centre, in Hong Kong Monday. The vulnerable turtles are among the 10,000 packed into a boat coming in from the neighbouring gambling enclave of Macau on Dec. 11. AP
Hong Kong authorities made what they called a record seizure of 10,000 turtles packed into a boat coming in from the neighbouring gambling enclave of Macau on Dec. 11. A few hundred of the turtles are to be put on airline flights beginning Thursday, but it's already too late for many of them.
The turtles, some of them endangered and up to 80 years old, were destined for the soup pots of China, but ended up in the care of local conservationists who were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers.
"It takes a whole day for us just to touch and turn them, checking whether they are still alive," said Idy Wong, a spokeswoman for Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden, a local research centre housing the turtles, mostly in open pigpens.
About 3,500 of the turtles had died by Monday, said Gary Ades, a fauna conservationist at the institute.
They had been shipped in containers and "packed on top of one another, with the bottom ones often crushed," Ades said.
"If the conditions don't improve, they won't last very long," said Ades, who pulled several dead turtles out of the pens while showing a reporter around on Monday.
Many of the turtles were caught in the warm climates of Malaysia and Thailand and have been coping poorly with Hong Kong's winter, where temperatures have recently been as low as 44 degrees Fahrenheit (6.4 degrees Celsius).
The institute only had room to care properly for 80 of the turtles - giving them food and swimming space in covered, heated pens, Ades said.
About 200 turtles will be flown out in the first shipments Thursday and Friday to the United States, where they will end up at the Alapattah Flats Turtle Preserve in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
There were 12 species of turtles seized and those listed as endangered included the river terrapin, painted terrapin, Malaysian giant turtle and Asian brown tortoise.
Conservationists were appealing to airlines to provide free space for the turtles.
Chinese tradition holds that turtles symbolise longevity and many people eat them in the belief they can nourish the kidneys, strengthen bones and improve the complexion, according to a Chinese medicine practitioner, Wong Wai-ming.
Wong said turtles used for medicines here are imported legally from mainland China.
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