Successful Conservation Strategies for Sea Turtles

Book excerpt: After decades of research, monitoring, and analysis, we still have so much to learn about sea turtles. As reptiles, they are environmentally sensitive animals and thus can sense acute changes in their habitat. This rudimentary tactic of ectothermic animals has possibly conceded to the survival of sea turtle populations over millions of years. They have endured cooling and warming of the earth. The habitats they depend on have endured fierce hurricanes and erosion. Now the question remains if sea turtle populations and their habitats will survive the challenges and pressures that humans place on the world. The anthology of research presented in this textbook is diverse and yet so interconnected. We cannot work to conserve wildlife populations without a fundamental understanding of habitat or the range of changes that individuals within a population can tolerate. Sea turtles are no exception. Changes in migration patterns due to climate change, diversity of food sources between species, acute habitat selection for nesting, mutations in genetics, and differences in anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry between species and even individuals make the study of sea turtles dynamic and challenging.