The Department of Environment has issued a strong warning against disturbing local turtles after groups of people reportedly interacted with a juvenile green turtle in distress on Seven Mile Beach.
“Wild sea turtles in the Cayman Islands are protected at all times (including those that have been released by the Cayman Turtle Centre (CTC) and it is an offense under the National Conservation Act to disturb them,” the DoE said in a post on Tuesday on its official Facebook page.
It said it was made aware of a juvenile green turtle that was swimming along the shore and coming onto the sand along Seven Mile Beach over the last week.
“Staff and Turtle Team Volunteers went to check on the condition of the turtle several times. The turtle was one that was released from the Cayman Turtle Centre (CTC) last week and had not been able to navigate its way out to sea,” it explained.
Various videos have surfaced on social media showing groups of individuals following the turtle, taking photos and interacting with the distressed animal.
The turtle appeared to become more exhausted and disoriented, the DoE said, and was collected Monday morning and returned to the vets at CTC.
It added that while the DoE is grateful for the reports from the public, it was also “made aware that a number of people were disturbing the turtle by touching the animal and even lifting it out of the water for photographs”.
Cayman Turtle Centre, on its official Facebook page, reported that the young sea turtle is now being cared for their in-house veterinary team and is doing well.
“He/she will be re-released at a later date once they have fully recovered,” it added.
The DoE is appealing to the public to report such behaviour to its enforcement team on 916-4271.
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