Many areas have seen improvement in green sea turtle numbers in the world. Devastated by European Colonialism, it is thought that sea turtle populations plummeted by 95 per cent and were now on the brink of extinction.
Habitat loss, hunting, rising and warming seas, tourism, drowning when tangled in fishing gear, and pollution–including plastic ingestion, have imperilled Green Sea Turtles.
However, recovery has been dramatic due to human conservation intervention. So while “conservationists [have] celebrated the good news, … they also cautioned that [while] … green sea turtles are rebounding globally, several subpopulations are still threatened. Without continued protections, the species could easily slip backwards,” Smithsonian Magazine reports.
Efforts to save the green sea turtle, classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1982, have been underway since the 1950’s. Their success has meant that their population is estimated to have increased by about 28 per cent since the 1970s. They were removed from the endangered list last year.
Conservation work has included raising and releasing hatchlings, protecting eggs on beaches, reducing light pollution that disorients hatchlings, and warming cold-stunned turtles in Florida.
The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) has been working in Indonesia, and Ecuador, to prevent capture of turtles by nets by adding battery-powered lights, and have reported a 70 per cent decrease. Next up are solar-powered lighted gillnets.
NOAA, (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), is using a metal bar and mesh device installed in the neck of shrimp trawler nets. The shrimp easily pass through, but turtles can’t, and escape through a flap in the mesh.
The Marine Research Foundation’s Dr. Nicolas Pilcher is encouraged by increasing turtle numbers, and reassures conservationists that “we must use this win as a catalyst to achieve numerous other wins, ” the BBC says.
Areas that have seen a resurgence of green sea turtle numbers include: Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Palau, Costa Rica, Mozambique, and the Cayman Islands.
While some areas in Australia, the Mediterranean, Pakistan, Mexico, Florida, California and Hawaii have seen cause for concern.
Nesting and Hatchlings
Sea turtles are famous for swimming as many as 1600 miles (2600 km) to return to the beaches where they were born. Scientists think that this ‘natal homing’ could be due to an internal magnetic compass located in crystals in their brain, or they use olfactory sense imprinting, or the imprinting of the memory of the earth’s magnetic field in the location.
Female sea turtles mate in the water, come ashore, and build nests on beaches above the water line. About 85 to 200 eggs are in each clutch, and the female can have between three and five clutches per season. Tiny hatchlings are prey to many animals and birds like foxes, jackals, marine mammals and birds. Only about 1 per cent can make it to sexual maturity at about 20 years of age.
May 23rd is World Turtle Day!
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Sources
After Decades of Decline, Some Good News Is Here for Green Sea Turtles. (2025, October 17). Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/after-decades-of-decline-some-good-news-is-here-for-green-sea-turtles-180987535/
How WWF protects sea turtle species across the Pacific. (2023, July 5). World Wildlife Fund. https://www.worldwildlife.org/news/stories/how-wwf-protects-sea-turtle-species-across-the-pacific/
Green turtle bounces back from brink in conservation ‘win’. (2025, 10 October). BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg426qqqqnro
Good News Stories for Endangered Species Day 2026. (2026, May 15). NOAA. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/good-news-stories-endangered-species-day-2026
Most Sea Turtles Rebounding Worldwide as Conservation Efforts Protect Nests and Habitat, Analysis Finds. (2025, April 22). NOAA Fisheries. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/most-sea-turtles-rebounding-worldwide-conservation-efforts-protect-nests-and-habitat
Green sea turtle saved from extinction in major conservation victory. (2025, October 10). Oceanographic Magazine: CXD Media Ltd. https://oceanographicmagazine.com/news/green-sea-turtle-saved-from-extinction-in-major-conservation-victory/
Green Sea Turtle. (2026, May 21). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_sea_turtle
Turtle Excluder Devices. (2026). NOAA Fisheries. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/southeast/bycatch/turtle-excluder-devices
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