The Endangerment of Sea Turtles

What Causes Sea Turtle Endangerment and How We Can Stop it

Kayley Swanson

01 / 12

Introduction

The topic I’m researching is the endangerment of sea turtles. Sea turtles face threats both in and out of the water. Pollution is a major factor in their endangerment, as people carelessly throw garbage into waters. Another issue that puts sea turtles at risk is climate change. The increasing temperatures can often make waters too hot and unsafe for sea turtles. A final risk to sea turtles is human and vehicle traffic on beaches, causing a loss of habitat and nesting spots for many turtles. I’m choosing to focus on this issue because I’ve always loved sea turtles and they’re such harmless, interesting creatures, and I feel like our carelessness as humans shouldn’t be the cause of their extinction.

In this story map we will address three questions...

1. How does pollution affect sea turtles?

2. How does climate change impact sea turtles and their reproduction?

3. How does human and vehicle traffic affect nesting areas and baby turtles?

Source one

“Plastic Pollution Is Killing Sea Turtles,” World Wildlife Foundation. 30 June 2021.  Plastic pollution is killing sea turtles: Here's how – WWF-Australia | Plastic pollution is killing sea turtles: Here's how | WWF Australia . Accessed 21 Nov. 2024. 

This source talks about how pollution from plastic is killing sea turtles. It goes in depth about why sea turtles eat plastic, what the plastic pollution does to them, and how we can stop it. This source contributes to my research in many ways as it gives both information about the issue, and solutions to it. After reading, I learned that sea turtles eat plastic bags because they look very alike to jellyfish. Similarly, they eat fishing nets because they look like seaweed. 

Source two

“How Does Climate Change Impact Sea Turtles?” Olive Ridley Project. 21 Sept. 2020  How does climate change impact sea turtles? Olive Ridley Project . Accessed 21 Nov. 2024

This source talks about how climate change impacts sea turtles in many different ways like loss of food sources and sea levels rising and harming nesting areas. This source contributes well to my research because it gives many different examples of how the rising climates are harming sea turtles and putting their lives in danger. After reading, I learned that higher temperatures result in more females being produced and less males, so increasing sand temperatures could shift the sex ratio, leading to turtles having trouble reproducing in the future. 

Source three

“Beach Driving,” Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network.  Beach Driving . Accessed 21 Nov. 2024

This source talks about how driving on beaches can degrade the coastal environment by damaging vegetation, compacting sand, crushing incubating sea turtle eggs, and creating deep ruts, making it hard for baby turtles to make it to the sea. This source contributes to my research because it gives many examples about how driving on beaches and human interaction can harm sea turtle nesting areas. After reading, I learned that there are many solutions to this issue. Besides just making vehicles on beaches not allowed, we can require passes, limit numbers of vehicles on the beach, enforce speed limits, and many other great solutions.  

Source four

Peer reviewed source

Simantiris, Nikolaos. “The impact of climate change on sea turtles: Current knowledge, scientometrics, and mitigation strategies,” Science District. 1 May 2024.  The impact of climate change on sea turtles: Current knowledge, scientometrics, and mitigation strategies - ScienceDirect . Accessed 21 Nov. 2024

This source is a very long and detailed article that dives into how climate change impacts sea turtles. It discusses how they’re impacted by global warming, storm intensity, and sea-level rise, as well as many other topics. This source contributes to my research because it gives pages of important information about this issue, because if we don’t bring awareness to it, sea turtles could go extinct. After reading, I learned that global warming is known to change the migratory routes of sea turtles and alter the distribution of foraging areas. 

Source five

“What Can You Do to Save Sea Turtles?” NOAA Fisheries. 8 June 2022.  What Can You Do to Save Sea Turtles? | NOAA Fisheries . Accessed 21 Nov. 2024

This article talks about how people can save sea turtles. It gives many different examples about what you can actively do, like carrying reusable bags, filling in holes on the beach, and knocking down sandcastles. This source contributes to my research because, even though there are a lot of issues and problems when it comes to sea turtles endangerment, the article provides solutions that you can participate in in your everyday life. After reading, I learned that keeping lights off the beach, whether it’s headlights, flashlights, or something else, can help protect females while nesting. 

Source six

“Threats to Sea Turtles,” Olive Ridley Project. 17 Nov. 2023.  Threats to Sea Turtles - Olive Ridley Project . Accessed 2 Dec. 2024

This source not only lists different threats to sea turtles, like predation, climate change, and plastic ingestion, but also gives a list of the seven different types of turtle species and mentions the fact that each one is endangered. This source contributes a lot of good and useful information about many different things that can be threatening to sea turtles. After reading the article, I learned six of the seven sea turtles species are classified as threatened with extinction. 

Source seven

“Why Are Sea Turtles Important?” See Turtles.  Why Are Sea Turtles Important — SEE Turtles — SEE Turtles . Accessed 2 Dec. 2024. 

This source gives really great examples of why sea turtles are so important, and why we need them to not go extinct. It gives five reasons, then goes into talking about some more detailed examples. This information contributes a great deal to my research because it brings people's attention to all the good that turtles do and might even lead more people to wanting to save them. After reading this source, I learned that turtle nesting can really help beaches because the nutrients left behind by eggs and hatchlings that don’t survive provide an important source of coastal vegetation. 

Conclusion

Having completed my research, I’ve learned that sea turtles are impacted on such a deeper level than we even realize. A slight change in temperature can change their routes or cause less males to be produced, leading to difficulties reproducing in the future. I also learned that many different things can impact a turtle's nesting area including compacted sand, sand castles, holes, high water levels, and many other things. In order to slow the endangerment of turtles, we all need to work together and actively do things like use reusable bags, fill holes on the beach, and don’t shine lights on the beach.

Going off of what I’ve learned in my research, sea turtle endangerment is greatly related to the concept of human environment interaction. Everything we do, without even noticing it, can affect a sea turtle, if not a whole bale (group of turtles). If we don’t, as a society, make a change, sea turtles could go extinct. 

One large thing the human planet relies on are food sources. One major food source is sea food, whose source of food is things like coral reefs. Since everything is connected, if we start to lose coral reefs to things like rising water temperatures, we will also lose not only some of our food source, but the existence of sea turtles. When things like global warming exist, it doesn’t only impact sea turtles and other sea life, it also affects humans in every aspect.  

Credits