At least 20 turtles were dead and dozens more were rescued Sunday after being entangled in plastic waste washed ashore on one of the world's longest beaches in Bangladesh, officials and conservationists said.

Locals said waves of waste -- mostly plastic bottles, fishing nets and buoys -- floated ashore late Saturday. They spotted turtle carcasses among the sand dunes early Sunday.

Bangladesh's forestry department said it was the first time such a large volume of plastic had washed onto the 120-kilometre (75-mile) beach along the Bay of Bengal.

"Hundreds of locals rushed to the beach since early morning to rescue the wounded turtles," forestry spokesman Sohail Hossain told AFP.

"We have buried the dead ones and are trying to release the rescued turtles back to sea."

Beach clean-up charity Plastic Bank Bangladesh said their volunteers found and buried at least 20 Olive Ridley turtles among the estimated 50 tonnes of waste spread out over a 10 kilometre stretch of the beach at Cox's Bazar.

"I haven't seen these many dead turtles lying on the beach in my life and also haven't seen such a massive pile of waste floating ashore," fisherman Jashim Uddin told AFP.

Leading Bangladesh turtle and tortoise expert Shahriar Caesar Rahman of the NGO Creative Conservation Alliance said most of the turtles were at least 30 years old.

"The turtles often get trapped in gigantic waste patches floating in the sea and eventually die of suffocation. This seems to be a similar case," he told AFP.

About 26 tonnes of waste produced from ships and neighbouring countries float into Bay of Bengal every year, said Moazzem Hossain of local conservation charity Save the Nature Bangladesh.

"This is a unique case of plastic invasion. It sends a great danger signal to our marine biodiversity," he said.

It was not clear how many turtles were rescued.

Local district administrator Kamal Hossain said authorities were investigating the incident.

Olive Ridleys are the most abundant of all sea turtles around the world, according to conservationists.

But their numbers have been declining and the species is recognised as vulnerable by the IUCN Red list.

Related Links
Our Polluted World and Cleaning It Up

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Brazil prosecutors urge removal of environment minister
Brasilia (AFP) July 7, 2020
Brazilian prosecutors have called for the dismissal of the country's environment minister, alleging he contributed to increased deforestation and fires in the Amazon by removing measures designed to protect the rainforest. Ricardo Salles oversaw a 25 percent reduction in the Environment Ministry's budget and the freezing of an international fund to combat deforestation, which "directly contributed" to an uptick in deforestation, said a statement released Monday by 12 public prosecutors. Environm ... read more