Indonesian marine police released 20 protected green sea turtles into Bali waters after smugglers abandoned the animals during a raid, two more remain under treatment.
Authorities on the tourist island put the turtles back in the ocean Tuesday following final checks at a conservation center on Serangan Island, also known as Turtle Island, in southern Bali.
Associated Press reporting described a weekend bust in which marine police foiled an attempt to move 22 green sea turtles, known scientifically as Chelonia mydas, in waters off the island after residents flagged suspected smuggling.
Officers found every turtle alive on an empty boat. The suspected wildlife smugglers had already fled.
That left police with the animals, the boat, and no named suspects in custody for this case.
Gusti Agung Purnama Wirahadi of the Bali Water and Air Police said Tuesday that two of the 22 turtles are still sick and must be treated before they can go free.
The other 20 cleared final checks. Crews lifted them with blue cloths, moved them by small truck to the shoreline, and returned them to the ocean.
Wirahadi framed the outcome as a warning, not a one-off rescue.
Bali Water and Air Police official Gusti Agung Purnama Wirahadi said:
"We hope that no one will dare to capture, keep, or trade these protected species anymore,"
Indonesian law has backed that message for decades. Turtle species in the country have been legally protected under conservation and fisheries laws since 1990. A 2018 Environment Ministry regulation further clarified protections for the six sea turtle species found in Indonesian waters. Additional government rules also ban their trade.
The latest raid shows both the reach of the trade and the limits of a single bust.
Residents reported the suspected smuggling. Marine police responded. The turtles survived. The people who left them on the boat did not face arrest in the account provided.
A separate case in June went further. Authorities on Bali’s Pegametan coast foiled an attempt to illegally trade 21 protected green sea turtles and arrested a 67-year-old man suspected of storing the animals before they were distributed for sale.
Bali, home to about 4.5 million people, was once a major hub for green sea turtle trafficking. Historical demand tied in part to the use of turtle meat in Balinese Hindu offerings. The laws on the books were meant to shut that market down.
The pressure is not only local. A 2022 global study by Arizona State University researchers found green sea turtles accounted for 56% of sea turtle killings over the 30-year period through 2020.
Twenty turtles are swimming free because residents spoke up and marine police moved in. Two more still need treatment. Twenty-two animals were found alive instead of disappearing into illegal trade.
What the Saturday operation did not deliver was a public accounting for the smugglers who ran. The June Pegametan raid produced an arrest. This one, as reported, produced a boat and a conservation win, and open questions about who organized the load.
Wildlife trafficking is not a victimless side hustle. It is a crime against protected species, against the rules Indonesia has carried since 1990, and against the communities asked to live with the damage when enforcement lags.
When the law is clear and the animals are saved, the next test is simple: the people who bag them for profit should not get to vanish with the empty boat.
