A turtle caught by Indian fishers set free by Navy

During a patrol in northern seas, naval personnel onboard a Sri Lanka Navy vessel intercepted an Indian fishing trawler engaged in fishing in Sri Lankan territorial waters on 24^th February. When inspecting the Indian vessel, naval personnel had found a sea turtle caught by the Indian fishers. Having retrieved the sea animal, naval personnel had released it to the ocean again.

Worldwide, six of the seven sea turtle species are classified as threatened or endangered due to human actions and five of them are found in waters around Sri Lanka. On the sidelines of the government effort for the conservation of these endangered species, Sri Lanka Navy has also launched a turtle conservation project to augment this praiseworthy initiative. Accordingly, over 5,700 baby turtles have been successfully released to their natural habitat, right form the hatcheries maintained by the Navy.

Sri Lanka Navy throws its full weight behind for the conservation of wide ranging ocean resources, through its direct involvement and dedicated missions.