The 22.7kg turtle caught by a Hanoi’s fisherman was sold to a Chinese trader at the price of VND180 million (nearly $9,000) on October 14. The fisherman, Nguyen Ba Toan, 60, said that a dozen of people came to his house to see the turtle and offer from 17 to 100 million dong ($800-$5,000) for the animal but he did not agree.

On October 14, a Chinese man offered VND180 million and Toan agreed. “This turtle is perhaps the only giant turtle that I can catch in my life, so I do not want to sell it. But no competent agency paid attention to it. Moreover, it did not eat for three consecutive days and it got weaker, so I have to sell it,” Toan explained.

Toan’s wife, Le Thi Thai, said that her family was always busy with hundreds of people who came to see the turtle. “Even at 1-2am, they knocked at the door, asking to see the turtle. It was so inconvenient, so we sold it,” she said.

Previously, Toan discovered the giant turtle when he went fishing under the bridge and struggled to catch it by himself. After bringing it home, he had many people come to his house to see the turtle and make several offers.

The turtle weighs 22.7kg and is one meter long and 50 centimeters wide. It is said to bear resemblances to the giant old turtle in the ${attraction_Hoan_Kiem_Lake:”Hoan Kiem Lake”} in ${bigcity_Hanoi:"Hanoi"}.

Dr. Ha Dinh Duc, a biologist and professor at Hanoi University, who has been researching on Sword Lake turtle, said the turtle caught by Toan is actually of Asiatic soft-shell species, which can be found in Middle and Southern Vietnam.
Duc said the turtle could have been brought to Hanoi and had escaped to the river.