GOOD NEWS FOR SEA TURTLES
Leatherback Sea Turtle. Photo: USFWS
Though They’re Still Endangered, YOUR Concern is Helping Some Species Recover
Make no mistake: Sea turtles of all species continue to face the threat of extinction. Until relatively recently, people the world over thought nothing of taking their eggs wherever and whenever they found them, and they also killed adult turtles for food. In addition, development along tropical and subtropical beaches has damaged and destroyed nesting areas, as have rising sea levels brought on by global climate change. Sea turtles also are accidentally caught and drowned in commercial fishing gear, killed by oil spills, and die from intestinal blockages after ingesting floating plastic that they mistake for something to eat.
Scientists estimate that the populations of most sea turtle species declined by 95 percent over the course of the 1900s—with the race toward extinction accelerating dramatically during the century’s final two decades. For example, in 1980, the worldwide population of the leatherback sea turtle—one of AAW‘s Top 10 Endangered Species—was thought to include around 120,000 breeding-age females. But just 15 years later, that estimate had dropped to between 20,000 and 30,000 breeding-age females.
Aside from the leatherback—the world’s heaviest reptile, capable of reaching an adult weight of close to a ton—other endangered sea turtle species include green sea turtles, loggerhead sea turtles, Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, and hawksbill sea turtles. All face the same daunting set of manmade environmental problems.
However, in spite of the continued—and in the case of climate change, growing—threats, conservation measures along with a rise in public awareness and concern seem to be making a real difference. Reporting in Yale Environment 360, conservation writer Ted Williams cites wildlife biologists as saying that at least in some places, there has been an increase in reproduction as well as in overall population. On Florida beaches, for instance, the number of leatherback sea turtle nests grew from a low of 27 in 1989 to 641 in 2014. Leatherback numbers also have gone up along the coasts of Costa Rica and Panama, and worldwide nesting populations of green sea turtles have been increasing over the last two decades, largely due to laws prohibiting the taking of their eggs. Hawksbill sea turtles once again are being seen in the waters of Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, and their nesting populations are on the rise in Brazil and the Caribbean.
The relatively good news is due to the strict enforcement of the federal Endangered Species Act in the U.S., and similar protective laws in many—if not all—of the other countries in whose waters sea turtles are found. Just as important, however, is that the people of many sea-turtle countries have become aware of the vulnerability of these popular species. Not only does the public support laws protecting turtles, but individual people try to refrain from activities that cause them harm.
Of course, the reported increases in sea turtle numbers and nests may be only temporary, especially if climate change continues to eat away at the nesting beaches. However, it now seems much more likely than it did just a few years ago that these magnificent and ancient ocean-dwelling reptiles will remain with us through the remainder of the 21st century—and hopefully far beyond.
