Tons of aquatic wildlife products destroyed in Hainan

A total of 6,000 items of aquatic wildlife products and specimens confiscated from four regions -- Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi and Fujian -- were destroyed by fishery law enforcement departments in Sanya, Hainan province, on Wednesday, the 19th World Turtles Day.

The illegal products included red coral reefs, giant clams, green sea turtles and hawksbills, with a value of more than 100 million yuan ($15.6 million). The activity was part of a publicity promotion event arranged for the World Turtles Day.

The China Sea Turtle Conservation Alliance, which announced its establishment Wednesday, released 37 confiscated turtles into the ocean in Sanya. More than 2,000 sea turtle products were confiscated in Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan last year.

Regarded as a "living fossil" and a symbol of good luck and longevity in China, sea turtles have been living on the Earth for more than 250 million years.

But only seven species have survived — leatherbacks, greens, loggerheads, hawksbills, olive ridleys, kemp's ridleys and flatbacks — as human activities such as the illegal trading of turtle meat, eggs and shells, habitat destruction, marine debris and global warming have threatened the turtles' survival.