sea turtles

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    ‘Whales, Sea Turtles and Other Animals Shouldn’t Have to Suffer and Die From Entanglements’: Conservation Group Seeks Federal Help

    ‘Whales, Sea Turtles and Other Animals Shouldn’t Have to Suffer and Die From Entanglements’: Conservation Group Seeks Federal Help

    Oakland conservation group the Center for Biological Diversity has petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to require trap fisheries to convert from traditional crab fishing gear to new ropeless or “pop-up” gear in all United States waters within the next five years. The old gear has led to many entanglements and injuries of endangered whales […]

    Record Number of Endangered Turtles Nest in Florida County

    Record Number of Endangered Turtles Nest in Florida County

    Scientists in a South Florida county have gotten a pleasant surprise this year. A record number of endangered leatherback sea turtles nested on beaches in Broward County this season, nearly doubling the previous record high. “It’s difficult to say why Broward County saw such an increase in leatherback nesting this season,” Broward County biologist and […]

    Sea Turtles in the Florida Keys Have High Tumor Rates. Are Humans to Blame?

    Sea Turtles in the Florida Keys Have High Tumor Rates. Are Humans to Blame?

    Something strange is happening to sea turtles in the Florida Keys, and scientists and conservationists are working together to understand why. Stranded green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the Southernmost island chain in the United States are showing high rates of internal and external tumors — 51.5% to be exact. This is more than double […]

    Young Turtles Are Ingesting Lots of Plastic, Study Confirms

    Young Turtles Are Ingesting Lots of Plastic, Study Confirms

    The 8.7 million species that inhabit this Earth did not evolve in a world dominated by human activity, and this can cause problems when climate change or pollution transforms a previously advantageous environment into a perilous one. This is the case for juvenile sea turtles, a study published in Frontiers in Marine Science this month […]