DHAKA -- Bangladeshi bio-marine experts have released 25,000 endangered baby turtles into the sea in the past two months as part of a state-run captivity breeding program, an environmental official said Friday.

Rafiqul Islam, spokesman for the Coastal and Wetland Biodiversity Management Project, told Agence France-Presse that 80 to 90 percent of the Olive Ridley turtle eggs would have been destroyed by humans and dogs if the program had not existed.

"We starting collecting the eggs along the southern coastline at the end of last year and since May we have released 25,000 hatchlings following an incubation period," he said.

He said the biggest danger the turtles faced was from local tribespeople who considered the eggs a delicacy.

The initiative started five years ago but this breeding season had been the most successful by far, he said.

"Last year 15,000 were released. The number has grown a lot this year because we have worked very hard to expand the program."

As well as setting up hatcheries in the southern district of Cox's Bazar, officials had also focused on educating locals about the importance of protecting the turtles.

"Tribal people living nearby used to eat the eggs. Some locals were collecting the eggs to sell," Islam said.

"We've built awareness among the local people not to eat or sell the eggs. Now they are not eating them and they are helping us protect them by collecting them for us to incubate in our hatcheries."

He said the turtles, which come to shore every October to lay the eggs, were also at risk from dogs and foxes who ate them.