Arron Culling was walking through a food market in Papua New Guinea when he saw them: two sea turtles, tied up, waiting to become the dish of the day. He did not think twice. Together with his coworker Mark, they gathered about 50 dollars, bought them, and loaded them into the truck.
They drove a few kilometers to the coast. They set them free. “We got them for 50 New Zealand dollars… and released them”, Culling wrote on Facebook, alongside photos that the internet was quick to share thousands of times. Since 2015, the duo has repeated the gesture nearly 10 times.
But not everyone applauded without reservations. Sea turtle fishing remains legal in that country, and several conservationists warned of something uncomfortable: paying for a captured animal can encourage people to catch more, fueling the very trade that puts the species at risk. A heartfelt rescue — and an open question about whether this protects the species or perpetuates the problem.
