Carcasses of over 300 Olive Ridley turtles were washed ashore at Thikkavanipalem beach near Visakhapatnam [Images] on Tuesday.

Environmentalists suspect that the cause of death of these endangered turtles could be sea pollution and mechanised fishing activity.

Olive Ridley turtles are listed as a highly protected species under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1971. With the fishing season coinciding with the turtles' egg-laying season, fishermen go to sea in motorised trawlers and the turtles invariably get caught in the propellers and die. Most of the trawlers do not have turtle excluder devices.

The shore where the dead turtles were found over the last six days is located near the National Thermal Power [Get Quote] Corporation's Simhadri power plant, fly ash pump house and several other industrial units. Some environmentalists say that chemical effluents and fly ash seeping into the sea might have resulted in the deaths.

In 2006 too, a large number of carcasses of turtles were found at Baruva beach in Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh.