Since the Movement Control Order (MCO) came into effect in March, there's been many stories of the nature 'healing', as well as sightings of many animals that don't usually venture so close to places that have high human traffic.
Just a few days ago, Malaysians were delighted by the story of turtle eggs being found in Port Dickson. There were also reports of more turtle eggs being found in other parts of country than usual.
However, not everyone were happy for the same reasons.
That's because there are some who have taken the opportunity to take these eggs and sell them online.
Malaysians are outraged
A recent post on popular e-commerce site Shopee selling turtle egg shas created an uproar among netizens.
The post has since been removed.
Many conservationists shared screenshots of the attempted sale by a man in Terengganu on social media, calling people to report the account and asking people to stop the selling and buying turtle eggs.
Shopee also released a statement on its social media pages addressing the issue and calling for its customers to report those who sell wildlife and other illegal items.
— Shopee Malaysia (@ShopeeMY) May 14, 2020
"Shopee doesen't tolerate the sale of animal and wildlife products on our platform, as stated in our Prohibited & Restricted items policy. Users are required to adhere to our policies as well as the local policies, regulations & restrictions set by various governmental agencies & regulatory bodies.
"We have removed the listing & banned the seller on our platform, as well as blacklisted turtle eggs on our platform. In addition, we have a listing team that regularly screens product listings to make sure they don't violate our policies," the statement read.
While it is possible to appeal to sites like Shopee and other online platforms to remove such posts, the laws on selling turtle eggs aren't exactly clear.
The laws are not consistent
The laws pertaining to this issue are set by states so far, and most states don't even have any law that prohibits the sale of turtle eggs, or even one that protects the animals.
Selling turtles and its eggs is illegal in Sabah and Sarawak, while in Terengganu, only the sale of leatherback turtle's eggs are against the law (although the state is looking into banning the sale of any species of turtle eggs).
ZoologiMY shared a series of tweets calling Malaysians to stop buying and selling turtle eggs.
Sekarang ini, penduduk dunia sudah mencapai 7 bilion. Penjualan telur menjadi komersial dan tarikan pelancong pula. Malangnya, populasi penyu kita tidak meningkat selari dengan pertumbuhan populasi manusia, bahkan semakin menurun.
— ZoologiMY (@ZoologiMY) May 13, 2020
"In 1960s, the human population was only three billion. At that time, there weren't much protein sources, we can accept that the tradition of eating turtle eggs was not done commercially.
"Now, the world population is seven billion. The selling of eggs has been commercialized and as tourist attraction. Unfortunately, the population of turtles are not growing as fast as humans. In fact, it's going down," the organisation shared in a series of tweets.
Many agreed that the sale of turtle eggs should be banned, regardless of the species.
As a buyer, how many would know the difference between the eggs of different species of turtles anyway?
With the dwindling numbers of turtles around the world, it is the responsibility of each one of us to not buy or sell endangered animals, their eggs or any of their body parts.
If you see anyone selling wildlife or related items that could harm them online or offline, you can report them to the platforms you find the advertisements on and to the Wildlife Department.