The ocean has its silent guardians, resistant witnesses of geological eras that we humans can only imagine. Sea turtles, ancestral creatures that have swum in our seas for more than 100 million years, risked disappearing in a few decades because of us. But something is changing. Like primitive navigators who glimpse land on the horizon after months of storms, today we glimpse a glimmer of hope: more than half of monitored sea turtle populations show signs of recovery. It's not yet a definitive victory, but perhaps it is proof that, when we really commit, we can right our wrongs.
Data that gives hope for sea turtles
Finally some good news: endangered sea turtles are making a comeback, and some conservation efforts actually seem to be working. A study published earlier this month on Inter-Research Science Publisher reveals that more than half of the 48 monitored โregional management unitsโ (RMUs) (groups of sea turtles that share the same habitat and face similar threats) show signs of recovery.
Researchers, including wildlife ecologist Bryan Wallace of Ecolibrium, wrote that the results โdemonstrate the apparent effectiveness of many existing conservation strategiesโ and that they highlighted โseveral cases of favorable (and improving) conservation status at the RMU scale.โ According to the results, the population of these RMUs increased โon averageโ and โthreat impact scores improved for almost twice as many RMUs (53%) as for those that deteriorated (28%).โ
A complex picture of recovery and persistent threats
There are only seven species of sea turtles in the world. Six of these are classified as threatened or endangered, while the seventh (the Australian flathead turtle) is not included due to insufficient data. Despite their limited number of species, sea turtles live in many of the world's oceans, across a variety of habitats.
Most threats to sea turtles are caused by humans: climate changes, bycatch during fishing, habitat loss, plastic pollution, collisions with vessels, coastal developments and poaching for food and the shell trade. It's a list that makes me ashamed of our species, but at least today we can also talk about progress.
Geographical differences and species still in danger
There are important nuances to these promising data. The Pacific Ocean is home to the majority of sea turtle populations facing high-risk threats, while the majority of populations facing low-risk threats are found in the Atlantic.
The Kemp's turtle regional management unit alone achieved the highest species-level risk score, while risk and threat scores for leatherback turtles were the highest among species with multiple management units.
In the United States, all sea turtles are now protected under the Endangered Species Act, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) prohibits international trade in sea turtle species and their parts.
โMany turtle populations have returned, although some have not,โ he told theAssociated Press the Duke ecologist Stuart Pimm, who was not involved in the research. โOverall, the sea turtle story is one of the true conservation success stories.โ We canโt fix everything we destroy, but when we try, we get real positive results.
