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.
I’ve read before that one of the reasons the Galapogos tortoise species were either driven to extinction or almost so was because sailors though they tasted amazing.
So someone in the new cultured cloned meat industry really needs to get on that.
They could also survive for a very long time without food and water. Sailors would grab like 50 of them when visiting islands and snack on them like Doritos.