A giant endangered turtle was recently discovered by a fisherman off the coast in Daishan county, in Zhoushan city, Zhejiang province.

The turtle, weighing over 500 kilograms, was set free by the fisherman and identified as a leatherback, the largest kind of turtles and the fourth largest of any reptile.

Record shows that the longest leatherback previously ever found stretches 2.6 meters, and the heaviest one weighs 916 kilograms.

Leatherbacks were included in the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2013, and were listed into the wildlife under second class protection in China in 1988.

They are found mainly in the East China Sea and South China Sea areas.

The number of leatherbacks has declined by around 40 percent over the past three decades, partly due to the plastic garbage that leatherbacks have mistaken for jellyfish, their favorite food.

The international community has been making efforts to increase their numbers in recent years, with an increase expected by 2030, providing that garbage in the sea is kept at manageable levels. 

Fishermen in Zhoushan, well aware of the importance of ecological conservation, say that this is not an isolated case, and many other turtles have also been set free by them.

The leatherback turtle caught and set free in the East China Sea by a fisherman from Daishan county, Zhoushan city, Zhejiang province. [Photo/ wifizs.cn]