Turtlenapped Sea Turtles Rescued by Ministry of Environment

In a righteous turn of turtle justice; four rare Sea Turtles have been successfully rescued from sporadic vendors around the seaside, and have been safely returned to their natural habitats, according to a statement from Head of Environmental Affairs, Mohamed Shehab. Proper legal action and due process will soon be carried out against the perpetrators involved.

Shehab had told press this past Thursday of a report received by the Environment Ministry’s operations room, about a rather large (and very much endangered) loggerhead turtle, being kept at a shop in Mansoura, in addition to another report about the presence of two Green Turtles kept in a similar shop in Damietta, with the fourth victim of the heinous turtlenapping having been confiscated from a fisherman in Marina al-Alamein center in the North Coast. Thanks to the prompt efforts of the Environment Police (Egyptian Captain Planet probably) in cooperation with the Turtles and Marine Life Rescue Team and relevant Environment Departments, all turtles were removed from their rather dry bondage and returned to their respective seawaters.

Pictured: A Green Turtle not being turtlenapped.

Though no official records of how these endangered specimens wound up in fish shops and on random fishermen, it’s fair to guess that they may have been nabbed along the beaches, seeing as sea turtles tend to lay their eggs there between the end of May and mid-September annually. They also fall victim to blatant poaching as well as winding up in fishing trawls, leading to a great many unintended deaths.

Photos from Grisha Shoolepoff / iStockphoto & Two Oceans Aquarium.