Sea Turtles Thriving During Lockdown
As people around the world are staying home during coronavirus lockdowns, animals seem to be benefiting greatly. And sea turtles are no exception. The endangered sea creatures are flourishing in both Florida and Thailand. (1, 2)
Sea turtles can be found in all of the planet’s oceans, except for the Arctic and Antarctic. They make yearly migration between feeding and breeding areas. After mating in the ocean, they travel to beaches to lay their eggs. Females dig a hole in the sand, lay their eggs in it, cover them back up, and go back to the ocean. (3)
The eggs take about 60 days to hatch. Then, the hatchlings must make their own way to the ocean at night. They risk being killed by crabs and seabirds, and they may also be confused by lights from buildings along the coastline. The hatchlings can be tricked by these lights and head in the wrong direction instead of following the natural light of the horizon into the sea. (3)
There are seven species of sea turtles swimming the world’s oceans. Six of those species are endangered, mostly as a consequence of human activities including hunting, pollution, and climate change. Sea turtles are also often accidentally caught and killed in fishing nets. (3)
Increased Sea Turtle Nests in Florida
The decrease in human activity is allowing sea turtles to thrive. Two weeks into the summer nesting season, the staff at Loggerhead MarineLife Center in Juno Beach, Florida had found 76 leatherback sea turtle nests in the area they oversee. They described this as a significant increase from the same period of time during the previous year. (1)
The center’s staff hope that this will be a prosperous nesting season for the endangered leatherback sea turtles. Loggerhead turtles, which are considered vulnerable, also nest in Juno Beach. The center’s staff believe that loggerheads too could benefit from decreased human activity on the beaches. (1)
“We’re excited to see our turtles thrive in this environment,” Sarah Hirsch, the Loggerhead MarineLife Center’s senior manager of research and data, told Channel 12 in West Palm Beach. “Our world has changed, but these turtles have been doing this for millions of years and it’s just reassuring and gives us hope that the world is still going on.” (1)
Lockdown Advantages for Sea Turtles
David Godfrey, the executive director of the Sea Turtle Conservancy, told The Guardian that sea turtles will benefit from lockdown in several different ways. “The chances that turtles are going to be inadvertently struck and killed will be lower,” he said. (1)
“Ingestion and entanglement in plastic and marine debris also are leading causes of injury to sea turtles,” Godfrey continued. “All of the reduced human presence on the beach also means that there will be less garbage and other plastics entering the marine environment.” (1)
Usually, only one in every 1,000 sea turtle hatchling survives. The number of hatchlings that die is higher on beaches with greater tourist activity. (1)
“We expect that thousands of hatchlings that ordinarily would be disoriented by lights this nesting season will not be, and are more likely to survive to reach the sea,” Godfrey said. (1)
The advantages for sea turtles aren’t confined to Florida. This spring, beaches in Thailand have the highest number of nests in 20 years. Hopefully, endangered sea turtles will see a boost in their population this year. (2)
