AKP Phnom Penh, February 08, 2021 --

The WCS Turtle Conservation Team and Community Fishery have recently released a critically endangered Cantor’s Giant Softshell Turtle into the wild safely. 

The turtle, 14.5kg in weight, was found caught on a fishing hook by a local fisherman which he deployed to catch fish along the Mekong River in Koh Khnher commune of Kratie province, according to the WCS. 

As a direct result of turtle conservation awareness campaigns and release events conducted by WCS in collaboration with Fisheries Administration (FiA) over the past years, the fisherman recognised the turtle was a protected species and immediately informed the Community Fisheries, a community-based body to conserve fisheries resources as well as endangered turtles, it underlined. 

The Community Fisheries then passed on the information to WCS field team and Kratie Fisheries Administration Cantonments for further actions, added the same source.

Cantor's Giant Softshell Turtle (Pelochelys cantorii) is listed on the IUCN Red List as globally Endangered. It was thought extinct in the Cambodian portion of the Mekong River until its re-discovery in 2007 in a 48-kilometre stretch of the river in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces.

                                                                                (Photo: WCS Cambodia)

By C. Nika