24,000 olive ridley sea turtle eggs seized near Salina Cruz, Oaxaca “This seizure is one of the largest we have carried out,” Profepa said. “What’s more, the person [apprehended] is apparently a repeat offender and presumably one of the largest gatherers and distributors of turtle eggs in the region.” The maximum penalty for trafficking in turtle eggs is nine years in prison and a fine […]

Record number of fires recorded this year in the Amazon rainforest, home to 45 species of turtles Wildfires often occur in the dry season in Brazil but they are also deliberately started in efforts to illegally deforest land for cattle ranching. Inpe said it had detected more than 74,000 fires between January and August – the highest number since records began in 2013. It said

Palm Beach Town Council, FL rescinds ban on plastic bags, polystyrene containers after Florida Retail Federation threatens to sue On June 2019, the Palm Beach Town Council unanimously voted to ban plastic bags and polystyrene containers throughout the city. However, that changed during a meeting just several months later. In July 2019, the town received a letter from the Florida Retail Federation, stating the ban

Turtles: Captive breeding for endangered species growing LANGLEY, B.C. As this turtle dangles from one’s hands, its feet churn, waiting to be placed down. The turtle’s feet touch dirt for the first time but somehow, innately knowing what to do, it charges towards the shore and straight into the water. “These animals don’t have much of a parental system. (The young) are pretty hard-wired to

Sri Lanka joins India, Bangladesh, and Senegal in effort to move Indian star tortoise from Appendix II to Appendix I under CITES due to suspected high numbers of illegal trade, CITES may reject “The argument that will be made is the sheer volume of trade,” he (Sumanth Bindumadhav) told Mongabay. “The Indian states of Telangana and Andhra [Pradesh] alone ship out about 55,000 tortoises every

Puerto Vallarta in Mexico preparing for sea turtle nesting season and protection Currently, Puerto Vallarta is the only city to have a sea turtle protection plan on the Mexican Pacific, which has led to making Puerto Vallarta the best place in the country to see them in their habitat, the result of years of effort in conservation. The city records an 85% hatching rate. The

Meet Mona Khalil, founder of Lebanon’s Orange House Project protecting sea turtles and raising the next generation of conservationists Khalil founded Orange House Project in 2000 after finding turtles on al-Mansouri beach and felt compelled to protect the area so that they could continue to come and nest there. She informed the Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles that there were turtles on the

Undercover sting takes down international endangered turtle smuggler An undercover organisation has apprehended an international reptile smuggler, spanning across two continents. Last week, Nai Chun Vincent Cheung, 54, was arrested for allegedly smuggling hundreds of protected freshwater turtles that were shipped from Florida to Hong Kong. The illegal activity occurred over an 18-month period. Authorities captured Cheung in California on August 8th, who now faces

How Tim Shields’ Hardshell Labs is using drones to disrupt raven predation of hatchling desert tortoises There are an estimated 1 million ravens cruising the Pacific Flyway from Washington to California, and populations are booming in the Mojave. The Audubon annual bird count shows that there’s been an estimated 700 percent increase in ravens there over the past 40 years. The tortoises, meanwhile, are in