A rare green sea turtle found crawling weakly along the shoreline of Barangay Sabang in Calabanga, Camarines Sur, on Friday (Oct. 2) died despite residents’ efforts to save it.
Fishermen and bystanders spotted the turtle at about 5:30 p.m. that day in Zone 7-B, Sitio Maligaya, with a wound on its head.
Village chief Paul Christian Santos said it was not immediately known how the turtle sustained the injury.
Santos told the Inquirer in a phone interview on Saturday that residents tried to save the turtle, but it eventually died.
‘Before burying it, we had it documented. It measured 50 centimeters in length, and 25 centimeters in width, and weighed more than 20 kilograms,’ he said.
He mentioned that the information was forwarded to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Santos urged residents who encounter green sea turtles not to harm them, and to immediately report their sightings to government agencies concerned, as they are endangered species.