KARACHI: A rare marine leatherback turtle was found dead in the Miani Hor lagoon near Sonmiani, Lasbela district, on Thursday, the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) reported.

“The scars on the carapace indicate that the turtle died due to a boat strike,” said a technical adviser on marine fisheries to WWF-P, Mohammad Moazzam Khan, adding that the turtle carcass was 1.4 metres long.

The leatherback turtle, he said, was the rarest among the five marine turtle species found along the Pakistan coast and recent studies revealed that the population of this species was declining precipitously throughout its distribution range, including Pakistan.

“These turtles solely feed on jellyfishes, which are found in abundance in Miani Hor. Annually about 1,500 metric tonnes of jellyfish are harvested here and processed in Damb and Sonmiani,” he explained, adding that probably the turtle was hit by a boat while it was searching for food.

According to the WWF, there have been six authentic reports of occurrence of this species in Pakistani waters in past years.

Two dead leatherback turtles were reported by the Sindh wildlife department in the 1980s from the coast of Karachi whereas one dead turtle was reported from Gwadar (West Bay) in 2012.

For the first time a live turtle became entangled in a net in 2013 when a group of fishermen operating monofilament gillnet caught a large leatherback turtle in Gwadar near Surbandar village.

The turtle was safely released by WWF-Pakistan staff.

The second giant live leatherback turtle was again caught in gillnet in Surbandar, Gwadar, which was also released back in waters. The third leatherback turtle was entangled in tuna gillnets near Ghora Bari offshore waters in October this year, which was released after a very long struggle.

“It is believed that leatherback turtles are highly migratory and make really long migrations across the oceans, which make them prone to be hit by boats or ships,” Mr Khan said.

Published in Dawn November 19th, 2016