Green Leaf Foundation: Dead Sea Turtle Autopsy Shows Detrimental Effects of Thai Festival Loy Krathong on Marine Life

The Loy Krathong festival is being criticized by the Green Leaf Foundation because an autopsy performed on a dead sea turtle last month revealed that the Thai holiday has a negative impact on marine life.

A dead sea turtle washed ashore in Chonburi last month in Bangkok. It was determined to be a female, 20-year-old endangered green sea turtle.

Plastic Debris, Nylon String, Pins, Nails

The Sea Turtle Conservation Centre in the coastal province of Thailand later discovered the animal's intestines were jam-packed with nylon string and fiber from fishing nets, plastic waste, nails, and even pins.

The animal's digestive tract became obstructed by marine trash, which led to its eventual demise.

The most recent Loy Krathong festival is one of the offenders.

Deliberations about marine waste and Thailand's annual Loy Krathong festival, in which people honor the goddess of water during the full moon of the 12th lunar month, have been sparked by this case.

According to Tanawan Sintunawa, the Green Leaf Foundation's vice president and secretary general, fish and marine life are adversely affected by the Loy Krathong tradition, even though they are unaware of it.

To promote environmentally responsible travel in Thailand, several organizations from the public and private sectors established the foundation in 1998.

Loy Krathong

In Thai, loy means to float, and Krathong translates to the word "container." The container is a customary offering that is typically made of banana leaves, stems, and occasionally foam, and it is adorned with flowers, candles, and incense sticks.

Many of them also include staples, nails, and other fasteners for joining various parts.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand invited visitors to experience the charm, beauty, and culture of Loy Krathong celebrations on November 8 across the country by promoting the occasion as one of Thailand's most well-known and visually stunning annual festivals.

However, the nation learned in a little more than two weeks that a sea turtle's life was tragically cut short by marine trash.

2 Kg Trash vs. Endangered Sea Turtle

The endangered animal, whose shell has a length of 96.5 cm and a width of 90 cm, reportedly swallowed a significant amount of marine debris that it was unable to process and drowned, according to the veterinarian who performed the autopsy.

The Sea Turtle Conservation Center reported on November 27 that the fishing net debris has a total dry weight of about 100 g, but that weight increases to more than 2 kg when combined with all the food waste and other types of trash in the intestines, Global Daily News reports.

One-Sided Awareness

According to Tanawan, the main issue with Loy Krathong is that not enough people are aware of its negative effects on the environment.

He said that people shouldn't throw the trash into rivers or other bodies of water if they want to show respect for them.

For Tanawan, the Loy Krathong festival can be observed more sustainably by emphasizing the preservation of rivers, streams, and canals.

Ekwaranyu Amrapan, a spokesperson for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), urged the public to float offering containers together in advance of the Loy Krathong celebration this year and emphasized the value of protecting both the tradition and the environment.

He suggested that the general public ought to do it collectively, using a single container for each family, couple, group of people, or organization. To aid in waste segregation, pick a small container, made of natural materials, and contains few components. These containers will be used to create organic fertilizer, Channel News Asia reports.

This year, BMA alone collected 572,602 offering containers in the nation's capital. It is 42% more than the 403,235 such containers that were retrieved from Bangkok's water sources last year.

According to BMA data, 96.6% of the items collected this year were made of natural materials, a decrease from 95.7% in 2021, Coconuts Bangkok reports.