[DAWN] On April 17, 2013, British newspaper The Guardian published a shocking article titled 'Ship containing 22,000 pounds of dead pangolins crashes into protected reef'. According to the report, a Chinese boat carrying the remains of thousands of illegally killed pangolins crashed into a protected coral reef at Tuhbbataha National Marine Park, a Unesco designated World Heritage site on the Palawan Island in the Philippines.I saw one of these critters at a county fair in Thailand once. I thought it was a fake until it moved. Its scales look like they're whittled out of wood.
Following the crash, Philippines' authorities arrested 12 crewmen. The paper quoted Adelina Vilenna, a lawyer representing the marine park, as saying, "The fishermen face up to 12 years' imprisonment and fines of up to $300,000 (Â196,000) for the poaching charge alone. For possessing pangolin meat, they can be imprisoned for up to six years and fined."