Dr Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong, chief of the Rare Marine Animals section at the Phuket Marine Biological Centre, said 70 per cent of the injured animals were green turtles with significant wounds to their shells and fins.
Some had severed limbs, “a telling sign that they have been caught up in fishermen’s nets”, he said. Of those washed up on shore some 30 per cent seemed to have ingested garbage thrown overboard by passing boats.
When asked if these numbers seem out of the ordinary, Dr Kongkiat said that due to the increased severity of storms, generating high seas around Phuket, more turtles have washed up.
Adding to the casualties, he added, research showed that 10 per cent of young turtles hatched on Phuket also get stuck in nets while trying to swim to deep water further north, near Myanmar.
Dr Konkiat added that the public need to be more aware of the effect on marine life of garbage dumped in the water or on the beaches. Turtles sometimes mistake plastic bags for jellyfish – part of their diet – and eat them, with disastrous, often fatal, results for their digestive system.