DENPASAR, Indonesia — Conservation foundations on the Indonesian island of Bali raised concerns in February over the volume of live sea turtles seized from traffickers so far this year.

“The number of turtles smuggled shows that the main purpose isn’t just for ceremonies, it’s to meet greater consumption in the market,” Ranny R. Yuneni, endangered animals lead at WWF Indonesia, told Mongabay Indonesia.

On Jan. 12, police in Jembrana district in the island’s northwest told reporters that officers had recovered 29 green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) transported by road, five of which later died.

On Jan. 24 police said they had foiled criminal attempts to trade 23 turtles in Pemuteran, a village on the west of the island’s northern coast road. The Pemuteran coastline is home to several small resorts and other tourism ventures.

“We’re still investigating who the buyers are,” said Ratna Hendratmoko, the head of the Bali provincial conservation agency.

Shell companies

Poaching of turtle eggs by local communities and organized crime is the primary driver of a crisis that has condemned six of the world’s seven sea turtle species to threatened status, according to global wildlife watchdog the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

However, a study by Arizona State University researchers published in Global Change Biology in 2022 estimated that more than 1.1 million sea turtles were killed between 1990 and 2020. These killings were primarily to meet human demand for aphrodisiacs and food as well as spiritual uses.

Six of the seven species of sea turtle can be found in the waters off Bali, as well as the thousands of other islands across Indonesia. The remaining species, the critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii), is found only in the Gulf of Mexico and the North American Atlantic coast.

The green turtle, the species recovered at the law enforcement seizures in Bali in January, accounted for the majority (56%) of sea turtle killings in the 30-year period to 2020, according to the Arizona State University study.

Around 90% of turtle nests are destroyed for the illegal wildlife trade in some countries. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which regulates the global wildlife trade, prohibited all international trade in sea turtles from 1975.

Turtle species in Indonesia are legally protected by conservation and fisheries laws enacted from 1990. A 2018 regulation by the environment ministry clarified legal protection for the six species of sea turtle native to the country’s waters. Other government decrees also proscribe the trade.

Bali used to be a major location for green turtle trafficking owing to the erstwhile importance of turtle meat as an offering in Balinese Hinduism, a religion that accounts for the overwhelming majority of the island’s population of around 4.5 million people.

A 2020 genetic study of 20 sea turtles recovered as part of the illegal trade in Bali found that most likely originated from the waters off Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia.

Greenpeace estimated in the 1990s that around 20,000 sea turtles were killed annually to meet Balinese ceremonial demand.

However, in 2005 a landmark pesamuhan, a gathering of high Hindu priests, took place to agree a road map on ending the sacrifice of turtles for meat in religious ceremonies.

Despite these efforts by high priests to reform ceremonial process on Bali, demand for sea turtle meat remains embedded in cultural tradition in other parts of Indonesia. In the west of Sumbawa Island, sea turtle eggs are still offered to public servants and guests as a mark of respect.

Consuming sea turtle meat leads to high risk of chelonitoxism, a potentially fatal form of food poisoning that can harm the liver, kidneys and nervous system.

The causes remain poorly understood, but researchers say chelonitoxism in both animals and humans is linked to a sea turtle’s diet, such as algae and jellyfish. These toxins are heat stable, and no form of cooking can eliminate risk of acute poisoning from consuming turtle meat.

A study published this year collating reported cases of cheonitoxism found 420 deaths worldwide attributed to consumption of sea turtles.

“In Indonesia itself there have been several incidents over the last 10 years that need to be considered a warning to people who still consume turtle meat,” said WWF’s Ranny.

A change of carapace

Globally, sea turtles face urgent survival risks as the climate changes, because hotter sand temperatures on the beaches where females nest skews reproduction overwhelmingly in favor of female hatchlings.

Almost all green sea turtles hatched in areas of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef are born female when temperatures are elevated, a 2019 study published in Global Change Biology concluded.

Heavy metal contamination and plastic pollution already threaten sea turtles, while rising sea levels due to climate change will introduce new risks to reproduction by flooding nesting sites. Researchers have documented that process extensively on Raine Island, a coral cay and prominent sea turtle nesting site off the fringe of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

While the January seizures of dozens of sea turtles in Bali may be isolated, local conservationists say they may also signal persistent vulnerabilities in enforcement against the illegal trade.

A 2019 investigation by wildlife organization TRAFFIC for the CITES Secretariat found authorities in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam seized at least 2,354 whole turtles and more than 91,000 eggs during 163 law enforcement operations between 2015 and July 2019.

Femke den Haas, an animal welfare activist with the Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN), which was involved in the January rescue operations, said the trafficked turtles endured severe dehydration after being kept from the water for a long period.

“Some even had organ prolapse and required surgery,” Den Haas said, referring to a condition where an organ shifts from its natural position in the body.

Other turtles recovered by authorities had other internal injuries and perforations to their fins, which also required operations.

“Thankfully all the turtles have now made recoveries, and they can be released,” Den Haas said.

Banner image: A green sea turtle. Image by Connor Holland / Ocean Image Bank.

This story was first published here in Indonesian on Feb. 11, 2025.

To end turtle hunting, an African island state embraced the hunters

Citations:

Senko, J. F., Burgher, K. M., del Mar Mancha-Cisneros, M., Godley, B. J., Kinan-Kelly, I., Fox, T., … Wallace, B. P. (2022). Global patterns of illegal marine turtle exploitation. Global Change Biology, 28(22), 6509-6523. doi:10.1111/gcb.16378

Semmouri, I., Janssen, C. R., & Asselman, J. (2024). Health risks associated with the consumption of sea turtles: A review of chelonitoxism incidents and the presumed responsible phycotoxins. Science of The Total Environment, 954, 176330. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176330

Pertiwi, N. P. D., Suhendro, M. D., Yusmalinda, N. L. A., Putra, I. N. G., Putri, I. G. R. M., Artinigsih, E. Y., … Sembiring, A. (2020). Forensic genetic case study: Species identification and traceability of sea turtle caught in illegal trade in Bali, Indonesia. Biodiversitas, 21(9), 4276-4283. doi:10.13057/biodiv/d210945

Patrício, A. R., Varela, M. R., Barbosa, C., Broderick, A. C., Catry, P., Hawkes, L. A., … Godley, B. J. (2019). Climate change resilience of a globally important sea turtle nesting population. Global Change Biology, 25(2), 522-535. doi:10.1111/gcb.14520