Turtles Trapped in Nets on The Cox’s Bazar Sea Beach
Plastic wastes and torn nets are coming on Cox’s Bazar beach along the waves. Sea turtles get trapped with these nets. The members of “Save the Nature of Bangladesh, Cox’s Bazar District Committee” are working to rescue the turtles and release them in the sea again.
According to Save the Nature of Bangladesh, plastic waste has been floating towards the coast of Cox’s Bazar since the afternoon on 11th July. But as the night wore on, nets with tons of plastic wastes came with waves towards ashore.
Sea turtles also come on the beach being trapped in these nets. More than ten sea turtles have already been rescued and sent back to sea, among them most were trapped in nets.
Parvez Ahmed, Organizing Secretary, Save the Nature of Bangladesh, Cox’s Bazar district committee, said, “Hundreds of tonnes of plastic waste would be dumped across an area of 4 km from Daria Nagar Park to Himchhari.
Although it is just a concept. Hundreds of people are collecting plastic. There are nets, tree trunks and various wastes. We are releasing the turtles. Basically we are on the spot to protect them. But there is no one from the administration sector”
However, it was not immediately known where such a large number of nets and waste materials were coming from. ANM Moazzem Hossain, chairman, Save the Nature of Bangladesh confirmed the subject saying,
“We don’t know where so much waste has come from. Members of our organization are rescuing and releasing the tortoises that came with the wastes, especially the ones trapped in nets. At the same time, a lot of enthusiastic people are crowding in to find valuable or necessary things in all these wastes. Many are collecting it.”
He further said, “We do not have adequate surveillance of our 200 nautical waters. The government has never been able to identify or punish foreign ships for dumping waste in our waters.
Marine pollution is a violation of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Convention. Which violates more than 30 conventions and declarations of 700+ guidelines and codes enacted by the IMO.
So we should form a sea commission now to protect the biodiversity and cleanliness of the sea.”
Source: iNEWS/R/HK
