Although no official census has been conducted in Iranian islands to verify or reject whether this animal species is endangered, the information provided by World Bank indicates that oil and industrial pollutants are 47 times higher than the international norm and pose a threat to animal species, Mehr News Agency reported.

A university professor, Kahrom, said turtles are not facing extinction in Qeshm island.

However, he conceded that oil and other pollutants have created a lot of problems for the turtles.

“Turtles are not native to the Persian Gulf waters and scattered. They migrate to Persian Gulf to lay eggs from the Indian Ocean and Pakistan+s Karachi port. They are amphibian and live in two different environments,“ he said.

Kahrom pointed out that sea turtles used to be hunted on a large scale in the whaling days for their meat, fat and shells.

Coastal peoples have also been known to gather turtle eggs for consumption. One of their most significant threats now comes from the long-line fishing method, which is blamed as one of the causes of accidental sea turtle deaths, and the black market demand for tortoiseshell for both decoration and alleged health benefits.

Nets used in shrimp trawling and fishing have been known to cause the accidental deaths of sea turtles. The turtles, as air-breathing reptiles, must come to the water surface to breathe. Caught in a fisherman+s net, they are unable to go to the surface to breathe and suffocate to death in the net.

In early 2007, almost a thousand sea turtles were killed inadvertently in the Bay of Bengal over the course of a few months after being trapped in fishing nets.

However, some relatively inexpensive changes to fishing techniques such as slightly larger hooks and traps from which sea turtles can escape can dramatically cut their mortality rate.

Beach development is another area threatens sea turtles. Sea turtles return to the same beach to lay eggs and if these areas are developed their nesting locations are destroyed.