The Green Sea Turtle | Conservation

There’re many reasons why the population of Green Sea Turtles are dropping. The main reason is humans. Turtles has always been hunted be man. Meat and eggs for food, shells for jewelry and ornament, skin for leather goods and even the fat for oil.

Even though many countries have laws against killing sea turtles, many turtles are killed when they come to lay eggs. It’s quite predictable when and where they will arrive, so it’s basically just to go to the beach and wait. This way is a lot easier than catching the turtle at sea.

The nests are also quite easy to find. Even if the turtle already has laid the eggs and returned to the sea it’s easy to see where the nest is. The female turtle must struggle back to the sea and leaving a trail behind in the sand, leading all the way up to the nest.

The improvements the last 100 years in the fishing industry has also caused huge drops in the turtle population. The improved fishing methods mean that many turtles get caught as a by-catch. Every year many turtles become entangled in longlines, driftnets and shrimp trawls. Some turtles manage to swim to the surface where they get help to get free, but it’s not all that are that lucky. .

Another human by-product that every year kills sea turtles is marine debris. Litter and other marine debris can prove deadly to sea turtles when they entangle the turtles or are mistaken for food and ingested. There are recorded cases of sea turtles dying as a result of eating or becoming entangled in marine debris, such as plastic from sheeting, bags, or deflated balloons, discarded fishing line, and tar balls.

Fibropapilloma is a disease that’s a fairly new discovery. The Green sea turtle gets large bulbous tumors. It starts on the soft tissue of the turtle and then spreads to many parts of the body. Once the turtles have the disease they don’t recover, and ultimately dying from the disease. Even though some scientist suspect a virus, pollution or a parasite it’s not know what causes this disease.