Three children lost their lives after consuming sea turtle flesh on Pemba Island in Tanzania’s Zanzibar. On November 27, police reported that all of the children who died belonged to the same family. According to Juma Sadi, the regional police chief for Pemba North, 22 additional individuals have been brought to hospitals after eating sea turtle flesh on Friday, Xinhua reported.
The police added that samples of the sea turtle flesh have been delivered to the appropriate authorities for testing to examine the cause of the fatalities. “Two of the people admitted to hospital are children and they are in critical condition,” Juma Sadi was quoted by Xinhua as saying. He further highlighted that the sea turtle flesh is suspected of being poisonous.
Algae on the seafloor are known to discharge deadly poisons between the months of November to March when the nation’s temperatures rise and during these months, sea turtles, as well as over 20 kinds of fishes, feast on toxic algae at the bottom of the seafloor. Further, the poisons in the plants eventually seep into the flesh of the organisms that consume them. It has the potential to be lethal if eaten.
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