As the best recognized of the sea turtle species, the green turtle is an icon of popular culture today. Once viewed primarily as a resource to be exploited, green turtles are now the centerpiece of a global conservation movement.
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Gaining community support is vital to the long-term success and survival of any local conservation project, and it takes time. Projects need to address problems in an organic way, weaving solutions into the fabric of the local culture rather than layering them on top of it.
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The intense need that the 2010 BP Oil Spill presented for wildlife response brought together scientists, conservation workers, and rehabilitation specialists from around North America. Here are two accounts of these response efforts from the inside, as given by Blair Witherington and T. Todd Jones.
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Public murals in Mexico have long served as platforms for social commentary and transformation. Building on this tradition, the sea turtle conservation community of the Baja California peninsula has turned to public murals to help shape pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors.
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Climate change is expected to cause increased erosion and nesting beach loss in some areas, which can directly affect sea turtle nesting habitats, as shown by this washed-out nest in Florida, U.S.A. Although the exact effects of climate change on sea turtles are uncertain, precautionary human actions can give sea turtles a better chance of adapting to such changes.
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Although green turtles swim in nearly all the world’s oceans, nest on sandy beaches around the globe, and migrate vast distances between feeding and breeding areas, a curious population of green turtles calls only the Hawaiian Islands home.
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Government researchers in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, have been using a unique tagging system to mark hatchling loggerhead turtles since 1970. If the turtles return to nest as adults, scientists are able to determine their age—an otherwise impossible task.
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As of 2011, the SWOT database has expanded to include more than 5,700 individual data records contributed by more than 550 data providers (and literature sources) from more than 2,800 distinct nesting beaches. As such, it is currently the most comprehensive global sea turtle nesting database in existence, and it is well positioned to serve as the world’s premier data clearinghouse and monitoring system for sea turtles.
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Shell Beach is a 120 kilometers (74 miles) stretch of beach and mudflats along the northwestern coast of Guyana in South America. The area is renowned as the annual nesting ground for four marine turtle species: leatherbacks, hawksbills, olive ridleys, and green turtles. The area’s bird diversity is also one of the richest in Guyana. For those reasons, Shell Beach was identified by the government of Guyana—through a consultative process—as a priority site for protected area status.
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In recognition of their global plight, sea turtles were among the first species listed on the CITES Appendices when the treaty came into force, and CITES protection over the past 35 years has been critical to ensuring their survival. Formidable opposition from some CITES Parties to all attempts to weaken sea turtle protection and a unified effort from the conservation community have been key to maintaining the international ban on trade.
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