Illegal fishing methods cause death of marine mammals

Colombo, July 18 (Daily Mirror) - The Wildlife Department announced today that illegal fishing activities like bottom trawling have caused the death of marine mammals such as turtles and dolphins around the sea areas of the country.

Resorting to the illegal method of bottom trawling for fishing kills all the fish including marine mammals, they added.

The Department officials have found 10 turtle carcasses within a week in the western coastal area of the country. Postmortems conducted by wildlife veterinarians revealed that breathing difficulties, injuries and damaged flippers had caused the deaths of these turtles.

Some of the turtle carcasses were already rotten when they reached the coastal areas, making it difficult to conduct postmortems.

Illegal fishing methods not only injure and kill sea turtles but also harm marine mammals such as dolphins.

Therefore, the Department urges the public to be alert on illegal fishing activities and report them to the relevant authorities to protect marine mammals.