At least eight sea turtles were stuck on land in Bali’s Badung regency after getting stranded in the area, one of which reportedly died because of all the floating trash.
Local officials referred to the recent discovery as “alarming,” saying the mounting trash at sea could pose dangers for ocean wildlife.
“This is an alarm for us, trash comes from many different sources and if it continues as is, the impact could be sea turtles dying, or maybe even dolphins and whales dying,” Permana Yudiarso, the head of Coastal and Marine Resources Management Center (BPSPL) in Denpasar, said.
“This is alarming, if we don’t do something it could be dangerous.”
Based on data compiled by BPSPL Denpasar, one of the six sea turtles found stranded on Pantai Berawa on Sunday had died. Meanwhile, stranded sea turtles were also found on Pantai Canggu and Pantai Munggu just last Saturday.
Permana explained that the sea turtles were found amid wooden trash by the beach, and suggested they may have gotten stranded because they got stuck on floating trash.
“It’s possible that the wave was pretty big and there was a lot of floating trash, the sea turtles may have been around all that and were carried away by the tides or the waves and got mixed in with the trash,” Permana said.
“That’s how they got stranded onto land, not because they had eaten the trash but because they got stuck amid all the trash in the sea.”
Sea turtles getting stranded on Bali’s beaches are sadly not a new thing. The island has seen an increasing number of stranding reports, with a local NGO putting the number at 22 in less than a month around January and February this year. At the time, marine pollution was also cited as one of the most pressing issues in the area.
