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Three Puerto Rican men have been charged with violating laws protecting endangered species after they were allegedly caught with the meat of sea turtles, authorities announced Thursday.
Carlos Diaz Rivera and Alfredo Velez Camano were arrested during a routine traffic stop in the northern town of Hatillo. Diaz allegedly threw turtle flippers out of the car window, and they were found to be carrying meat of at least two green sea turtles.
Meanwhile a grand jury indictment charged Jorge Ortega Rodriguez with possessing parts of an endangered hawksbill turtle in the central town of Naranjito.
It was not immediately clear if the three suspects had lawyers, and there were no phone numbers listed for the men in their hometowns.
U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez Velez said federal and island authorities will continue working together to protect endangered species in the U.S. territory.
Hawksbill and green sea turtles, which nest on beaches in Puerto Rico, are listed as endangered.
Marydele Donnelly, director of international policy for the Florida-based Sea Turtle Conservancy, said grown turtles have survived a formidable gauntlet of threats such as predators, capture in fisheries, pollution and boat strikes, along with indirect threats such as loss of suitable habitat.
"At a minimum, therefore, each adult is the equivalent of hundreds of hatchlings," Donnelly said. "In terms of scale, it is far less damaging to lose an entire nest of 100-plus eggs than one breeding-age adult."
Carlos Diez Gonzalez, who leads turtle protection efforts with Puerto Rico's Department of Natural Resources, said poaching has dramatically declined over the year, though isolated cases still crop up.