Almost 140 eggs were found inside the body of “Mae Thai Muang”, a 1.8-metre-long leatherback sea turtle found dead and entangled in netting on a beach in Phangnga on Monday.
The discovery has prompted calls for local authorities to better safeguard the coast and marine life.
An autopsy showed the sea turtle may have died four days or more before its carcass was found on the beach near Khao Lampi-Hat Thai Mueang National Park, said Patcharaporn Kaewmong, chief of the Sireetarn Marine Endangered Animals Rescue Centre.
Weighed down by 136 eggs, the turtle’s flippers and neck may have become entangled in a nylon fishing net while it was looking for an egg-laying area on the shore, she added.
Parop Pleang-Ngarn, director of the national park, said the turtle was one of three females expected to lay their eggs on the shore during this breeding season.
The turtle had laid eggs four times before her death and was supposed to have done so for a fifth time a week ago, he added.
Writing on Facebook earlier on Monday, Kongkiat Kittiwatanawong, an expert from the Marine and Coastal Resources Research and Development Institute, suggested a ban on the use of fishing nets in a six-kilometre area around Thai Muang Beach, as female leatherback turtles normally swim in this particular radius to lay their eggs.
As the suggestion was a short-term solution, he also suggested that marine preservation areas include more long-term protection measures for sea turtles to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.
In Thailand, leatherback turtles, commonly seen laying eggs on the western beaches of Phangnga and Phuket, are a protected species under the Wild Animal Reservation and Protection Act 2019. They are also labelled as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Losing one of these turtles is considered one of the greatest losses for Thai marine ecology and creature preservation, as it hinders the breeding opportunities of the species, said Mr Kongkiat.
