Poaching Turtles in the Phillipines

Poaching these giant leatherback turtles is a huge problem there.

Officials of Tawi-tawi province fear that Turtle Island, a protected area and home to giant leatherback turtles, is on the verge of devastation due to foreign and local exploitation.

"I don't know why…In fact, we have a memorandum of agreement with the World Wildlife [Fund], yet foreign and even local poachers could still penetrate the island and slaughter our turtles," Tawi-tawi Governor Sadikul Sahali told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.

Another agreement has also been reached between officials of Tawi-tawi and the Malaysian government for the protection and preservation of the turtles.

On September 1, Sahali said, Taiwanese poachers slaughtered more than a thousand turtles.