Turtle meat poisoning
The deaths first appeared in a British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) dispatch in December 2024 and was picked up all over the world. Yet I don’t remember reading about this case in local newspapers despite its lethality or the capacity to cause death or serious harm.
In this case, the lethality did not involve bullets or bombs, but turtles. The deaths came from eating turtle meat which involved the Tedurays, an indigenous people’s community, in the town of Datu Blah Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte. Three were killed and 32 were hospitalized.
The meat was so deadly that dogs, cats, and chickens that ate it, prepared as adobo (stewed with vinegar and soy sauce), were also killed.
I dug up more information on similar cases involving turtles and found similar cases distributed across a wide geographical area, mostly tropical waters, from off the coast of Africa, in Zanzibar, and Madagascar, to Florida in the States.
In the Philippines, I found reports from Eastern Samar, Sorsogon, and this latest one in Maguindanao del Norte. Worldwide, the deadliest reported incident happened in Pamba Island, Zanzibar, just last year in March, with nine killed and 78 hospitalized.
A specific term, chelonitoxism, is used to describe this kind of poisoning associated with marine turtles; the turtles themselves are victims of poisoning from ingesting HAB (harmful algal blooms), which we Filipinos usually call “red tide.” What happens is that the algae (and other microorganisms) go through a period of rapid growth, releasing pigments of different colors into the water, most often red although many other colors have also been reported, including cases where the contaminated water remains colorless, increasing the risks of people not knowing of the poisonous algal blooms.
Algal toxins can directly kill fish, shellfish, reptiles (like turtles), and even mammals as large as humpback whales. A report from Florida, looking at multiple cases of chelonitoxism, found that turtles are poisoned as they pass through areas affected by algal blooms and end up disoriented and washed to the shore (similar to the cases of dolphins and whales that are “beached” or stranded on the shore.
All kinds of turtles have been reported in poisoning cases. The Philippines hosts five of the world’s seven marine turtles, generically called pawikan. All marine turtles are supposed to be protected in the Philippines, i.e., it is illegal to hunt or consume the turtles.
In the US, marine scientists have been following Kemp’s ridley turtles, a marine species, which have been observed to navigate their way from waters with high concentrations of algal blooms to lower concentrations. Unfortunately, this may not be enough to save turtles from poisoning or death.
The BBC report about the poisoning in the Philippines sparked comments from readers, most of whom were unsympathetic, calling the victims “backward people” and even celebrating the deaths as “karma.”
Lost in the victim blaming is the need for education on the ecological context of this deadly phenomenon. The dangers of harmful algal blooms are known to many Filipinos, with warnings from the government disseminated through broadcast and print (including the Philippine Daily Inquirer) media but the poisoning risk is mainly associated with shellfish (clams, especially), with less awareness of poisoning from contaminated fish and turtles.
The BBC report noted that turtles are considered a delicacy as well as having medicinal properties by the Tedurays but the Chinese, too, are turtle aficionados and you can find turtle dishes on the menus of some Chinese restaurants. I haven’t seen reports though of chelonitoxism from China or from consumption by Chinese tourists.
Poisoning from algal blooms should also remind us of the concept of One Health, defined in international public health as the close interrelationships of human, animal, and environmental health. However, this definition has been criticized in recent years in the way it excludes a fourth important linkage between health and illness: plant health. In turtle poisoning, we see how disruption of the marine environment (for example, high temperatures) leads to a proliferation of harmful algae (plants), which then poisons turtles and other marine animal life, and can reach humans with fatal consequences.
The health of plant life is important, but there is not enough discussion of this link in One Health. Notice that lethality applies to harmful algal blooms, with emphasis on the “H” or harmful because there are also algal blooms that are important for marine life, the tiny plants being important food for marine animals. Plants are also a major source of energy for the ocean’s food web.
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mtan@inquirer.com.ph
