Photo in the News: 1,000 Giant Turtles Wash Ashore in India, Bangladesh
A team of scientists visiting the beach on Monday to investigate the mysterious mass deaths concluded that fishing nets were to blame.
Sea turtles swarming the shores to nest are getting entangled in poorly laid nets and drowning, the experts told Bangladesh's Financial Express.
Local fishers have denied the charge, claiming that they seldom catch sea turtles, but when they do they quickly return the animals to the water alive.
Hundreds of miles away in eastern India, however, conservationists say they too are finding evidence that nets are to blame.
"We counted 763 [dead turtles] in the last two months, all dead after getting caught in fishing nets," Biswajit Mohanty, coordinator of the conservation group Operation Kachchappa, told Reuters news service.
"They had bulging eyes and necks," he added, "which indicate they died due to a lack of oxygen after getting dragged underwater in fishing nets for hours."