Enforcing turtle protection laws is essential to helping ensure their survival.
by John Christopher Fine, J.D., Instructor Trainer, FL
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MARINE TURTLES have long been part of human history. In earlier generations, they were taken for food, kept aboard ships, and consumed by sailors and coastal communities. Even today, in some parts of the world, sea turtles are still killed for meat, soup, or eggs. Many more are lost to boat strikes, fishing nets, entanglement in lines, ingestion of plastic waste, and the steady loss of nesting and feeding habitat.
Population growth, beachfront development, artificial lighting, and pollution have all encroached on turtle nesting areas. Seagrass beds, an important food source for some marine turtles, are being damaged or eliminated from shallow coastal waters. Along nesting beaches, lights from oceanfront homes, hotels, streets, and businesses can disorient females coming ashore to nest. Instead of laying their eggs above the high-tide line, turtles may abandon nesting attempts and return to the sea.
Beach “renourishment” projects can create additional problems. Sand pumped from offshore areas may be placed on beaches during or near nesting season. Heavy equipment, steep berms, and compacted sand can make it more difficult for females to reach suitable nesting sites. Nests laid too close to the water may be washed away. Mechanical beach cleaning can also threaten hatchlings as they emerge and crawl toward the ocean.
South Florida is visited by five of the seven species of marine turtles: loggerhead, green, hawksbill, leatherback, and, more rarely, Kemp’s ridley. Some migrate long distances through the Gulf Stream waters off Florida’s east coast, with females returning to beaches to lay their eggs. Of the hatchlings that emerge from nests, only a small percentage survive to adulthood.
Rick Ratliff, one of the owners of Kyalami Too, a dive charter boat out of Riviera Beach, Florida, has spent years watching turtles return to these waters. A veteran diver, Ratliff praises the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s turtle monitoring and protection efforts. Enforcing turtle protection laws, he notes, is essential to helping ensure their survival.
Volunteers also play an important role. During nesting season, beach patrol volunteers work before dawn with tape, stakes, and markers to identify and protect nests. It is not easy work. They must monitor long stretches of beach, mark nests accurately, and sometimes ask beachgoers to move umbrellas, chairs, or other items away from protected areas. Most people comply once they understand the importance of what is being protected.
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Turtle nests face many threats. Feral dogs, raccoons, skunks, and other predators may dig into nests. Human activity, illegal egg collection, beach equipment, and coastal construction can also reduce hatchling survival. Even the color and composition of sand can matter. Darker sand absorbs more heat, and turtles, like other reptiles, are temperature-dependent when it comes to sex determination. Warmer nests tend to produce more females, while cooler nests produce more males. Changes to beach temperature can therefore have long-term effects on turtle populations.
Marine turtles are endangered or threatened in many parts of the world. Estimates based on nesting activity suggest there are approximately 50,000 loggerheads, 35,000 leatherbacks, 25,000 hawksbills, 90,000 green turtles, and 7,000 Kemp’s ridleys remaining worldwide. Olive ridleys are more numerous, with estimates around 800,000, while Australia’s flatbacks number about 21,000. Even with these estimates, all sea turtle species remain vulnerable to habitat loss, fishing activity, pollution, climate change, and continued human disturbance.
Is there hope? Yes, but only if human behavior changes. We can stop eating turtles and their eggs. We can reduce boat strikes by operating responsibly in turtle habitats. We can remove ghost nets and fishing lines. We can reduce plastic waste before it reaches the ocean. We can better manage beach lighting, protect nesting areas, and support science-based conservation programs.
It is turtle mating season now off Florida’s shores. Vast numbers of turtles will migrate long distances, sometimes hundreds or even thousands of miles, to arrive off the beaches where they hatched. Why do they return? They cannot do otherwise. How do they find their way? Science has only recently begun to explain it.
Years ago, I found a dead turtle hatchling on the beach. It had not made it to the ocean and died when day broke and the sun scorched it. I placed the hatchling in a pail of water, took a magnet, and moved it around the pail. Magnetic crystals in the turtle’s brain are believed to help imprint its birthplace and guide its return.
What a remarkable mystery of life. A turtle hatches from a nest, enters the ocean, drifts through vast seas for years, and, if it survives, may one day return to the same region where its life began. That alone should be enough to remind us that marine turtles are worth protecting.
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