Critically endangered green sea turtle found dead on shores of Pasir Ris Park
A carcass of the critically endangered green sea turtle found by a photographer on Tuesday morning was missing when National Parks Board (NParks) staff went to retrieve it.
Nature photographer Jayaprakash Bojan told The Straits Times that he came across the carcass at around 6am while exploring Pasir Ris Park with a torchlight. He goes to the park almost every morning, and was taking videos for a story on the park’s wildlife.
“When I saw it, I thought it might have been alive, but stuck on the shore on the rocks and boulders,” he said. “I tried lifting it, and that’s when I realised it was already dead. The centre of the shell looked kind of cracked, and it was not very heavy. It felt like a lot of the insides were already drained out, and the turtle was decaying.”
Said Mr Bojan: “I got in touch with the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum to see if it would be interested in the carcass (for study).”
A spokesman for the museum, which is located at the National University of Singapore, told ST that it did not retrieve the turtle’s carcass. “Due to the museum’s limited space, we do not need any more specimens of this turtle species as we already have several,” said the spokesman.
When NParks staff went to retrieve the carcass for a post-mortem examination on Tuesday, it could not be found.
Since 2020, NParks has been alerted to six dead sea turtles along Singapore’s shores, said Mr Ryan Lee, group director of NParks’ National Biodiversity Centre. Due to extreme decomposition, the cause of death could not be identified in most of the cases.
“Green sea turtles occur near coastlines worldwide, especially in areas with seagrass beds, and are one of the two species of turtles that are native to Singapore,” said Mr Lee from NParks. “If the public comes across a turtle carcass, they should refrain from touching or moving it, and call the NParks helpline to report it.”
The turtle, which can grow to about 0.9m to 1.2m in length, is considered critically endangered in Singapore.
A critically endangered hawksbill turtle was also found dead at Changi Beach in February. The carcass was retrieved by NParks. However, the cause of death could not be verified, owing to the extreme state of decomposition.
Founder of conservation group Marine Stewards, Ms Sue Ye, said turtle populations face multiple threats, such as plastic ingestion, being struck by boat propellers while coming up for air, and overall loss of habitats and nesting sites.
“In this case, the green sea turtle doesn’t look to have been hit by a boat propeller. From the photos, it doesn’t have big slash marks,” said Ms Ye.
However, she added, the only way to verify the cause of death is by conducting an autopsy.
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