Pacific Islanders Die After Feasting On Poisonous Turtle Meat.docx

Pacific islanders die after feasting on poisonous turtle meat Six people have died and more than 90 others were taken seriously ill after attending a feast of critically endangered hawksbill turtle on the remote Pacific island of Murilo.

Hunted in the past for its shell, the hawksbill turtle is protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species By Julian Ryall in Tokyo 7:00AM GMT 10 Nov 2010 Four children were among the dead. An emergency response team from the department of health of the Federated States of Micronesia and the World Health Organisation has concluded that the deaths were caused by chelonitoxism, a form of poisoning from the flesh of turtles. According to the nation's health authorities, there is no antidote or medicine that can specifically treat chelonitoxism. Children are reportedly more susceptible to the effects of the poison. More than 80 per cent of the people who attended the feast on the island, in midOctober, were treated at an emergency field hospital set up at the site. A team sent out at the same time to investigate the cause of the outbreak was hampered because all the flesh from the turtle had been consumed.

The flesh of any turtle can be poisonous, local health authority officials have warned, although the hawksbill is notoriously prone to the poison. Hunted in the past for its shell, the hawksbill turtle is protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's annual Red List as being critically endangered. Islanders in the remote parts of the Pacific have traditionally eaten turtles, although the Micronesian government plans to use this latest incident to discourage people from eating them.