Sea Turtles and Climate Change
Photo by National Geographic.
As this week’s United Nations Convention on Climate Change wraps up in Copenhagen, I thought it would be worthwhile to consider the effects of climate change on sea turtles.
According to the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, who recently completed a report on the topic and presented it in Copenhagen, sea turtles are impacted by climate change in three ways.
1) Rising ocean levels. Rises in ocean levels reduce the amount of beach on which sea turtle females can nest.
2) Increasing temperatures. Whether or not a sea turtle egg develops into a male or female depends on the temperature at which the egg incubates. Warmer temperatures create more females. If there aren’t enough males, the population cannot survive. At the hottest temperatures, eggs won’t hatch at all.
3) Changes to ocean currents. When ocean currents change, sea turtles may be thrown far out of their habitat and may be unable to return to feed or nest.
For the full report from Sea Turtle Restoration Project, click here.
Photo by Doug Perrine.
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The National Marine Life Center is an independent, non-profit 501(c)(3) marine animal hospital and science and education center dedicated to rehabilitating for release stranded sea turtles, seals, dolphins, porpoises, and small whales, and to advancing scientific knowledge and education in marine wildlife health and conservation.
Dear Teri,
Thank YOU and the Sea Turtle Restoration Project for the work that you do! Your report is timely and will be very helpful in our organization’s outreach efforts when people ask about sea turtles and climate change. The more we can educate and inform, the better!
Best,
Kathy
Dear Kathy,
Thanks so much for posting the link to our new report on sea turtles and global warming. We appreciate all your work protecting marine life. Now we all need to band together to pressure our leaders to take serious action on climate change!
Teri Shore
Their need to breathe makes them easy to catch at sea, and their nesting behavior renders both the females and their eggs highly vulnerable to hunters and collectors onshore. Some freshwater turtles are endangered for similar reasons, but with snakes and lizards, environmental problems are sometimes a greater threat.