Puerto Morelos, Q.R. — Municipal Police worked with environmental authorities in the rescue of a captured sea turtle. The adult turtle was seen by a resident tied up and laying overturned in the sun near Punta Brava Monday.
Authorities responding to the citizen report of the overturned sea turtle found it tied up. Thick sea rope had been used to bind its legs. The rope was wrapped around a majority of the turtle and was believed used to move it.
The reptile had been dragged on its shell into the mangrove and left where it was found by a local resident. Municipal authorities confirmed that a citizen reported the sea turtle to police who stayed with the turtle until environmental personnel arrived.
Personnel from the Secretariat of Environment Animal Welfare and Sustainable Mobility evaluated the sea turtle before cutting away the rope. Initial reports indicated that poachers may have intercepted the turtle on the beach during nesting season where they roped it and dragged it toward the mangrove, intending to return for it.
Once the rope had been cut away, a group of Puerto Morelos officers assisted in rolling the turtle back to its proper position where it was set free on the beach.
While municipal authorities noted that sea turtles are protected by environmental laws, they did not say if an investigation would be started into who was responsible for trying to remove the turtle from the beach.
