Videos and photos posted online on Tuesday of an endangered sea turtle being butchered have caused mass havoc in the online community of China. Formal investigations by the Marine and Fishery Department of Guangdong Province kicked off on Thursday.  

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A video revealed that the sea turtle, which has an estimated weight of 208 kgs, had been tied up by local fishermen and butchered. Then after that, the meat was sold to a shocking price of 140 yuan ($20) per kilo.

The sea turtle has been identified as a leatherback sea turtle by Wang Yamin, a marine professional at Shandong University, said, according to China.org.

"The leatherback turtle in China is a second class national protected animal," Wang said. "It may have gotten to the area during migration."

Meanwhile, Chang Sha, a lawyer based in Beijing, pointed out in a statement that there were legal repercussions for the killing of the animal.

"Whoever illegally catches or kills precious and endangered species of wildlife under special state protection or illegally purchases, transports or sells such species of wildlife as well as the products thereof shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention and shall also be fined," Chang said.

She added that although the turtle has not been purposely caught, the fishermen should have given much weight on the rare species' value. If the turtle was freed, the captors would not be facing any criminal charges.

The World Wide Fund (WWF) for nature back in 2013 presented statistics that the population of the sea animal had reduced drastically over the past two decades, the ECNS noted.

Sun Quanhai, a senior advisor at WWF, said that not only sea turtles but also other endangered species such as the hammerhead shark were being killed.

"What we saw in the media is just a tip of the iceberg," Sun said. "Most alienated regions still kill them and the hunters do not abide by government regulations." 

Tagschina, Animal protection, WWF, endangered species