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  Yahoo News 29 Mar 07
Malaysia arrests more Chinese nationals for turtle poaching

WWF 29 Mar 07
Turtle poachers apprehended in Malaysia

PlanetArk 30 Mar 07
Malaysia Seizes Trawler With 220 Rare Turtles

Yahoo News 27 Mar 07
Malaysia arrests Chinese fishermen for poaching turtles
Nineteen Chinese nationals have been arrested in waters off Malaysia's eastern Sabah state with an illegal catch of more than 70 protected turtles, most of them dead, police said Tuesday.

Except for five turtles left alive, the rest of the 78 Greenback and Hawksbill turtles had been killed and preserved by the Chinese men from southern Hainan province, police said.

"We have detained 19 crew, Chinese nationals from Hainan, China," said assistant marine police superintendent Husaini Zainal Abidin from Sabah's capital, Kota Kinabalu. "We also seized about 78 turtles, and out of the 78, five were alive," he told AFP.

Husaini said marine police made the arrest after encountering the poachers in their China-registered wooden trawler on Monday. "They tried to get away but our boat managed to detain them after we gave them a warning," he said.

Husaini said finding the carcasses of the turtles was "very, very sad". "They confessed it ... We believe it's for food and maybe for medicine," he said. "We are handing them to the fisheries department and we are charging them under the Fisheries Act. The offence is they encroached on our national waters and were poaching the turtles, which are protected species," he said.

The captain of the vessel faced a fine of one million ringgit (289,813 dollars) and each of the crew 100,000 ringgit or up to five years in jail, he said.

Turtles are hunted in Malaysia for their meat and shell, but many die after getting entangled in fishing nets in open seas.

China is a major importer of turtles from Asia for food and medicinal purposes and aggressive illegal poaching in Southeast Asian countries has seen sea turtle numbers falling.

WWF 29 Mar 07
Turtle poachers apprehended in Malaysia

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia – Malaysian authorities have seized several Chinese fishing boats off the northern coast of Borneo carrying cargoes of endangered marine turtles.

On 26 March, a boat carrying 72 mixed green and hawksbill turtles was apprehended and six people arrested. Three days later poachers were caught red-handed with a larger cargo of 220 green and hawksbill turtles.

All species of marine turtles found in the waters of Malaysia's Sabah Province are protected under the Fisheries Act and the Wildlife Enactment laws. Violations of the Wildlife Enactment carry a penalty up to MYR50,000 (US$14,500) and/or five years in jail.

“We commend the success of the Sabah Marine Police and encourage them and other enforcement agencies to continue their efforts,” said Chris Shepherd, Senior Programme Officer for TRAFFIC South-east Asia.

“We urge the authorities to prosecute these poachers to the full extent of the law. If there is no deterrent, killing of these endangered species will continue unabated.”

WWF-Malaysia and TRAFFIC South-east Asia are encouraging the authorities to return any surviving turtles from the latest seizures to the wild as soon as possible.

Hawksbill and green turtles are among the five species found in Malaysian waters. Their survival is threatened by habitat loss, fishing activities and international trade.

This is not the first time fishermen from China have been apprehended in the region for poaching marine turtles. In May 2004, marine police arrested 16 fishermen from Hainan after discovering about 160 dead turtles aboard a trawler. In 2005, more than 100 turtles were seized from another Hainan trawler which encroached into Malaysian waters off Labuan.

In response to the rising number of such cases, authorities from the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) launched a wildlife enforcement network to improve domestic and cross-border efforts to stop illegal wildlife trade.

WWF-Malaysia hopes the governments of Indonesian, Malaysia, and the Philippines will address this issue of foreign fleets poaching marine turtles during a marine ecoregion meeting this April in Kota Kinabalu, Indonesia.

PlanetArk 30 Mar 07
Malaysia Seizes Trawler With 220 Rare Turtles

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian marine police have seized a trawler carrying about 220 rare sea turtles and arrested 17 Chinese men for poaching, their second such seizure this week, a police chief said on Thursday.

In the two seizures, both involving chases through Malaysian waters, almost 300 turtles were recovered. Most were dead, caught for use in making Chinese medicines. Their shells and skins are also used to make fashion accessories.

"We chased them for about half an hour," said Assistant Commissioner Mohd Sueb, head of marine police for Sabah state, referring to the second seizure on Wednesday. "They refused to stop their engine so we were alongside and we jumped over and managed to stop the engine."

Armed police, acting on tip-offs, intercepted both trawlers in waters off Sabah, Borneo island, Mohd Sueb said by phone.

The turtles were mostly green turtles and hawksbills, both listed as endangered by the Swiss-based World Conservation Union. Only 20 of the roughly 220 seized on Wednesday were still alive, Mohd Sueb said. Of the 78 turtles recovered in the first seizure on Monday, only five were alive, local media said. All the turtles were handed over to Malaysia's fisheries department.

Nineteen men were arrested in Monday's seizure. Under Malaysia's fisheries law, the skippers of the trawlers face a maximum fine of 1 million ringgit (US$289,000) and the crew could each be fined up to 100,000 ringgit.

Wednesday's seizure, alone, represented a serious depletion of the population of green turtles and hawksbills, conservation groups WWF-Malaysia and TRAFFIC Southeast Asia said a statement.

"We urge the authorities to prosecute these poachers to the full extent of the law. If there is no deterrent, killing of these endangered species will continue," Chris R. Shepherd, of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, said in the statement.

Asked if police suspected any more turtle poachers were still trawling waters off Sabah, marine police chief Mohd Sueb said: "So far, no news. It depends on the intelligence that we get." (US$1=3.460 Malaysian Ringgit)

Yahoo News 29 Mar 07
Malaysia arrests more Chinese nationals for turtle poaching

Seventeen Chinese nationals in a wildlife poaching outfit have been caught with 240 protected turtles, most of them dead, in the second such seizure this week, police said Thursday.

Only 20 of the 240 Hawksbill and Green turtles were found alive after marine police arrested the poachers, from southern Hainan province, off the coast of eastern Sabah state.

Sabah marine police chief Mohamad Sueb Abdullah said marine police boarded the boat after sighting it in waters off the coast on Wednesday morning.

"We checked and we found out that there were 220 dead turtles and about 20 still alive, and three sharks," Mohamad Sueb told AFP. "Seventeen of them were arrested on board, one skipper and another 16 workers. The boat is from China, they are of Chinese nationality," he said.

Photos published in news reports Thursday showed the dead turtles lined up in long stretches of five rows, as marine police made an inventory of the carcasses.

The World Conservation lists the Hawksbill turtle as critically endangered, while the Green turtle is also endangered. Mohamad Sueb said the fisheries department would be prosecuting the Chinese for encroaching in Malaysia's waters and poaching.

"The fisheries department is taking action, they are going to prosecute this case," he said. Penalties for the offences are a one million ringgit (289,813 dollar) fine for the skipper and a 100,000 fine for each of the crew, or up to five years in jail for failure to pay, according to police.

The arrests follow a similar incident Monday off Sabah's waters, where marine police detained 19 Chinese nationals from Hainan with 78 turtles, most of them dead as well. Mohamad Sueb said police believed the men were all in the same group of poachers, citing similarities in the two boats and their equipment.

"We believe they are of the same group ... according to them they are from the same place, Hainan," he said.

Turtles are hunted in Malaysia for their meat and valuable shell, but many also die after getting entangled in fishing nets in open seas. China is a major importer of turtles from Asia for food and medicinal purposes and aggressive illegal poaching in Southeast Asian countries has seen sea turtle numbers falling.
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