THE Fisheries Department has not received any reports of turtles being allegedly slaughtered on an island in the Northern Division.
Divisional Fisheries Officer North Gerald Billings said they have their own fish wardens in villages of Vanua Levu who would have notified the department over the alleged slaughtering of 13 turtles.
But, he said, until yesterday they had not received any reports from their fish wardens on the island.
"We have not received any report as yet. There have been a lot of awareness program happening in villages of Vanua Levu including the island mentioned," he said.
"So we can't understand why people continue to do such acts like the slaughtering of turtles if they know very well what the law says about protection of turtles.
"We will have to check with our fish wardens over the matter highlighted by World Wide Fund for Nature in the newspaper," Mr Billings said.
WWF Marine Species co-ordinator Thomas Tui confirmed this week that they received a report from one of their turtle monitors who observed the alleged harvesting of 13 turtles by the group of islanders. "However, we are waiting for verification from the Department of Fisheries. Our monitor has lodged a report with the Department of Fisheries in Labasa."