Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Wildlife Department said it still does not have any leads in its ongoing investigation on the killing of six turtles in Semporna recently. Its Director William Baya said it will be quite difficult for the department to catch the culprits as the carcasses could have been discarded for quite some time.
"For now we have nothing to lead us to the suspects.
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"For one, we do not know where the turtles had come from and secondly, the department was only notified days after the turtles had been discarded," he said.
Baya reiterated the department is facing a huge challenge in solving such cases given the expanse of the waters off the East Coast areas and that the department is underequipped.
"Because we don't have any assets and rely on borrowed machines like boats from other enforcement agencies like the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) which has vessels to conduct sea patrolling," he said.
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"Despite this, my men are still on the ground investigating the case and we have also received assistance from the World Wide Fund for Nature on the ground," he said. Six turtles were found dead floating between the Silapag and Sanggaban seas within a priority conservation area in Semporna recently.
News of the discovery came after a Facebook user posted pictures of the dead turtles all tied up in nylon ropes and badly decomposing when found.
Turtle poaching has been rampant in many parts of Sabah's East Coast waters and similar massacres had happened in the same district near Pom Pom Island on April 16, 2014 and Aug 9, 2014.
