Summary
Three people died and 32 were hospitalized in the Philippines after eating a stew made from an endangered sea turtle in Maguindanao del Norte.
Symptoms included vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal spasms, likely caused by toxins from contaminated algae consumed by the turtle.
The stew was a traditional dish, but hunting or consuming sea turtles is illegal under Philippine law.
Similar poisoning cases have occurred, with sea turtles traditionally hunted for their flesh and eggs in some communities.
Not getting into the ethics of poor/uneducated people eating endangered species. Everybody sucks. It’s unfortunate.
Turtle is fucking delicious. I’ve only had freshwater turtle from non-threatened species. Best way I ever had was as barbecue sandwiches using a crockpot recipe prepared by an old man. Seven kinds of meat in a turtle. Killed a snapping turtle in a stocked pond once and spent hours trying to recover it just so we could eat it.
They’re so delicious they’ve become extinct in several places. English colonists ate all the turtles in Jamestown, Virginia, and while nobody claims that it contributed to the famine that killed the settlement, maybe.
Never had it, myself; turtle is one of the few animals I won’t eat, for no particular reason except I like them and haven’t developed a taste for them. But I hear from everyone that has that they’re delicious.
Doesn’t justify eating endangered species, even if you aren’t against eating meat on moral grounds.