Humanity Trumps Payday

When Chinese fisherman CaiTu hauled in a 200-pound, 100-year-old sea turtle, he knew he had to do the right thing and release the endangered animal.

The decision wasn’t easy: Cai could have earned two months’ wages by selling the delicacy to a restaurant, where it would have been made into soup. “I looked into that turtle’s eyes and saw something that was alive before my grandfather was born, and I didn’t want to be the end of that journey” he said. “I figured he had earned his right to enjoy the rest of his days in the deep.”