Why I'm Disappearing
Hint... You're Killing Me.
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Would You Want YOUR Home Invaded?
Two major threats to the green sea turtle are climate change and coastal development, which are both limiting the space on these beaches for the eggs to be laid for incubation. Climate change, though many may not realize it, is creating higher sea levels which has actually begun to wipe out critical nesting beaches for the green sea turtle. Similarly, the expansion of coastal developments takes away from the space these turtles have on beaches. Some areas such as the Hawaiian Islands, Lower Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina are catering to the green sea turtle to watch over hotspot nesting sites. Some observational studies show that, over the past two decades, there has been an increase of 5% in the population of the green sea turtle in the Hawaiian Islands (NOAA Fisheries, 2019). The incubation period and hatching times are crucial because, in many cases, the eggs are dug up and taken/eaten or a predator takes an egg as they swim to the ocean (Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire, 2016). With less and less space for these turtles, they won’t have a fighting chance for survival. In the past 50 years, around 90% of the green sea turtle population has disappeared, majority from climate change and human interaction/disturbances giving these turtles little chance to survive and reach adulthood. It’s devastating to see only 10% or 85,000-90,000 green sea turtles left in the world, and these turtles need our help to survive and recover as opposed to us degrading their home and leaving them as a past memory.
Killing Them Off in the Very Places They Give Life!
In coastal areas where green turtles live, humans see a tasty snack or a source of income rather than a living, breathing, valuable, and life-giving creature. Female sea turtles are forced to return to natal beaches annually to nest, which is where people often pounce on the opportunity to take advantage of the green turtle’s vulnerability. When coastal populations poach defenseless female turtles, they disregard their tremendous value and right to life. Globally, the number of nesting female green turtles has decreased by 48-67% over the past three generations! (Lopez, Poonian, Ramilo, 2016)
Your Luxury Vacation Spot Kills Baby Sea Turtles
The average clutch contains 110 eggs, but only 0.1% of them will reach adulthood! With less each year reaching adulthood to mate and reproduce, there will soon be no green turtles left. The recovery for the green sea turtle is such a slow process because there is a small percentage that reach adulthood and the females are iteroparity because they lay their eggs every 2-3 years during the warmer seasons, which creates a very small nesting season window (Seaworld Parks, 2019). A big obstacle the baby green sea turtles encounter is with further coastal development; these establishments not only take away space from nesting beaches but can also
U.S. Geological Survey, (10 Jun 2014). Baby Sea Turtles on Beach. Retrived from
confuse baby turtles once they hatch (Sea Turtle Conservation BonAire, 2016). Tropical islands, such as Hawaii, are constantly disturbing these marine animals with the new construction on beach resorts. The hotels cast artificial light onto beaches, which causes disorientation in baby turtles when they hatch. They can often stray to pool lights instead of the ocean, causing babies to die before they even get a chance to reach their natural habitat. In addition, features of hotels such as night kayaking tours allow humans to continuously interact with turtles for amusement, which creates obstacles in their ecosystem and even affects their reproductive patterns.
These babies deserve a chance at life!
Climate Change is Controlling Their Future
One reason why the green sea turtle isn’t reaching adulthood is the disturbances to their shelters, which can largely be attributed to climate change. This is an example of a biotic potential, which is the maximum reproductive capacity of an organism under their environmental conditions. Sadly, only 1 in 1,000-10,000 green sea turtles reach adulthood which vastly affects their survival rate (NOAA Sea Turtles). The turtles are suffering more from the environmental changes than we realize! The temperature of the oceans is continuing to rise, causing the sex ratio of female to male eggs to become unbalanced. The females must lay their eggs between 25-33 C during the incubation period. The temperature range of the clutch determines the sex of the eggs. Warmer eggs tend to hatch female while cooler eggs hatch male. With the temperatures warming up, the eggs are becoming more prone to hatching female. If the eggs are not placed within this range of 25-33 C then this could lead to doomed eggs. (Holmes; The Conversation, 2019). With these warmer climates, the turtles' eggs are placed in an egg chamber and will hatch females because they are ectothermic (WorldWildLife, 2017). With a higher ratio of female eggs to male, it will become more difficult for green sea turtle to reproduce which is contributing to the decline of their species. It is sad that the climate change WE have caused is affecting an innocent and vastly important species.
Recently, a virus has killed off around 70% of the swarming green sea turtles surrounding the islands called fibropapillomas ; unlike humans who have developed medicines for these types of viruses, turtles have to rely on their immune system and health to survive (WWF, 2012). There are still not enough scientific studies to clearly prove how this virus formed, but many signs point to our actions as the driving reasons.
Nasty Netting
Fisheries are a huge reason for the decline in the green turtle population. Green sea turtles are often caught in nets as bycatch. Although green sea turtles can hold their breath between 4-7 hours at a time, they often use up all their oxygen trying to escape the netting and drown within minutes (Conserve Turtles, 2019). A recent study has shown that many local fishermen in Baja California are finding around 1,000 dead green sea turtles wash up on shore every year because of getting entangled. Originally, the fishermen assumed this was by chance that they were coming into the lagoon area and happened to come into the high-bycatch area. However, after looking closer, its been shown how these fisheries in Baja California are primary foraging areas for the green sea turtles which means it now warrants a change in the fishing practices (John, 2018). Their population decline is a direct impact from human predators; our actions show we don’t see how important the green sea turtles really are. Let’s change this narrative before it’s too late.
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Important things to consider regarding fishing:
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It’s important to ALWAYS pay attention to the line and hooks
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Don’t throw bait out if a turtle in the area
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Change fishing location if the are attracts the turtle or other marine mammals
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the Green Sea Turtle often stays near shore close by which means they could be near a school of fish or jellyfish.
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When considering which kind of hook to use the “J” hook should be avoided and the circle hook will provide a safer option
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Buy fish from local grocery stores which are turtle-friendly fisheries
A diver rushes to the green sea turtle's rescue in attempt to save it from netting it was caught in
Scrambled Turtle Eggs for Breakfast?
Green sea turtles are often hunted down and slaughtered by coastal populations for their meat, leather, and eggs. Turtle meat and eggs are believed to be valuable sources of sustenance; there is an increasingly large commercial market for turtle eggs in South East Asia because of their supposed aphrodisiac and medicinal properties. Innocent turtles are also killed for their shells, which are used to create jewelry, ornaments, souvenirs, and other products sold for personal profit by coastal communities (WWF, 2019). This poaching of sea turtles poses a huge threat to their population and is one of the biggest reasons for their imposing extinction! What gives us the right to kill and eat these harmless animals when they play such an important role in the wellbeing of entire marine ecosystems, as well as our own economy?
How Turtle Poaching Became a Twisted Norm
The killing of green turtles dates back to the 1600s, during the expansion of European civilization. Ship crews, running low on resources of their own, became desperate for a new food supply. The crews noticed marine turtles and falsely believed them to be an inexhaustible source of food. Subsequently, turtles became an increasingly popular dish; a fondness of turtle soup grew during the Victorian era and large-scale commercial turtle harvesting has since followed. Green turtles have also been a part of trade in Asian Pacific regions for centuries. These operations have put the green turtle under severe strain and, if not stopped, will eventually lead to the extinction of this vital species (WWF, 2019).
Chensiyuan. (2006). Chinese Turtle Soup in Singapore. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Turtle_soup_chinese.jpg
An innocent turtle was slaughtered to make this "exotic" Chinese turtle soup dish.
Green Turtles Have a Target on Their Backs
Pie chart displaying the collected data of causes of green turtle deaths from described study
A group of UC Berkeley researchers led a study at a traditional historic sea turtle fishery in central Peru to determine if sea turtles were being illegally captured in the area. After sampling in dumpsites and coastal areas from 2009 to 2015, a total of 953 carapaces* had been encountered. Of all the carapaces, 92.2% were from green turtles! Furthermore, the researchers discovered that, out of all the green sea turtles observed, 98.6% had died dead due to illegal capture, with only 1.4% dying from other causes including strandings, collisions, and entanglements. This study revealed that, out of all sea turtle species, illegal capture is overwhelmingly targeted at the green sea turtle in particular, at least in the central Peru region (Galindo, Quinones, Quispe, 2017).
*A carapace is a sea turtle’s hard upper shell that acts as a ribcage and a means of protection for the animal. By removing green turtles’ carapaces, humans are brutally inflicting pain and death on these precious, innocent creatures simply for vain desires. Most of these shells were likely ripped off of turtles’ backs and disregarded carelessly so that humans could eat the turtle meat as food, ignoring the green turtle’s right to life, or intrinsic value, and all the valuable services it provides.
The Consumption Must Stop
In Bali, green turtle consumption peaked in the late 1970s when more than 30,000 green turtles were landed each year! Although the number of annual landings has since gone down, it still presents a huge threat to the green turtle population. In 2002, it was estimated that 684 green turtles were landed per month, equating to about 8,200 per year (WWF, 2019). As more green turtles are killed off, we are losing both their bequest value and their existence value. The consumption has to stop! Remember that there are only 85,000-90,000 green sea turtles left in the world. This is no longer just an interesting fact. The green turtle could be gone for good in a few short years, and it is up to us to do something about it.
Every Time You do THIS You Have a 22% Chance of Killing a Sea Turtle!
For the beautiful green sea turtle to survive, people need to realize the everyday harm we are causing. Plastic bags and straws are the number one killer of green sea turtles. “A new study suggests one piece of plastic has a 22 percent chance of killing a turtle that eats it, and 14 pieces will kill half.” (Smart News, 2018) To save the precious green sea turtle species, we need to start reducing plastic materials. We can reduce these objects by bringing your own bag to the grocery store and stop using plastic straws & lids and replacing them with reusable non-plastic water bottles, minimize or eradicate the use of plastic-wrapped items. Communicating with stores and local shops to stop using plastics is another major impact you can have to save green sea turtles as well as ourselves. Another way to save green sea turtles is to participate in coastal clean-ups and encouraging others to do the same.
Around 88% of the ocean is covered with pollution and humans are responsible. This level of pollution found in the ocean is unacceptable; it affects the turtles by weakening their immune system, getting tangled up and stuck in their stomachs starving them to death, and harming them as well as interfering with their habitat. (Sea Turtle Conservation BonAire, 2016) Chemical pollution such as gasoline and detergent ruins their immune system, making them chronically sick and can even be fatal. A main type of marine pollution is microplastic, which is ingested because it can be mistaken for food. Pollution is the number one cause of degradation to the green turtles’ habitat (Conserve Turtles, 2019). Are we not going to change our negative habits to save these turtles innocent lives? Their habitats are being destroyed because of pollution and climate change which is negatively impacting the health of coral reefs and weakening the biodiversity, not to mention all the death this pollution is inflicting on green sea turtles.
US Fish & Wildlife Services, (28 Mar 2014).
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