Endangered Species: The Green Sea Turtle

When someone mentions ‘endangered species’, your first thoughts may jump to Giant Pandas or Blue Whales. Whilst you would be correct, these are only those animals that are heavily featured in a number of charities’ campaigns. You may not know, however, that the Green Sea Turtle or other, lesser publicised species are also at risk. It is unfortunate for the turtles that they are not as well known or considered as ‘cute’ as some of the other species that are focussed on in the media.

Green sea turtles are, however, a species that deserves recognition amongst the endangered species of the world. It is a large sea turtle, and the only species in the genus Chelonia, making it taxonomically different to other sea turtle species. The most obvious reason or this is that it is mostly herbivorous, a trait not often seen amongst sea turtles that commonly prey on fish and jellyfish.

As is normal to other turtle species, the green sea turtle travels great distances between feeding grounds and the beaches where the eggs are laid and the young hatch. If the young manage to survive and avoid natural predators, they can live in the wild up to 80 years of age. The green sea turtle is only preyed upon by sharks and humans; whilst sharks are a natural hunter and therefore can be included in natural population growth and loss, the human influence on the green sea turtles is clearly the driving force behind the species’ decline.

Pollutants, overfishing and development are all key factors in the decline of green sea turtles. Pollution can affect the turtle species at either a population or individual scale and is therefore hard to specifically pin down the causes, as they can be due to anything from toxic waste or chemical interference all the way down to swallowing of discarded objects. Overfishing is an obvious cause, as turtles are often caught by accident in nets and subsequently panic and drown whilst captured. Similarly, turtles that are purposefully hunted for food or nests that are raided for eggs are other highly impacting actions that are undertaken at the turtle’s expense.

The turtles can be found throughout the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which not only means that they have a wide area that is available for them to find suitable habitat but also an increased range in which human interference can have an impact on their lives. The classification of endangered and the protection of the species from direct harm via fishing, hunting or nest-raiding is hopefully stalling the effects of the population decline, however they are still hunted as and where specific countries see them as a food source rather than a conservation species.

To help the turtles out of their predicament, we need to change the outlook of those communities that view the turtles as an expendable species to hunt and prey upon rather than be preserved. By altering their perceptions on these creatures, we can reduce the losses that are made every year thanks to hunting and unnecessary plundering of nests that are harming the reproduction rates of an already declining species.