The Plight of the Ancient Mariner: Top 12 Endangered Sea Turtles Around the World

The sea turtle moves beneath the waves of our oceans, in a splendid demonstration of grace and ancient descent. These magnificent reptiles have been sailing through the waters of the world more than 100 million years, avoiding natural predators and changing climatic conditions. But now, in a flash of an evolutionary eye, they are threatened the most by humanity. Almost all species of sea turtle are currently vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered.

They fight an unspoken war on the beaches overrun by poachers, in the seas full of plastic rubbish, and in fishing gear that becomes a death trap instead. The article features an intense exploration of the world of these ancient sailors. We will discuss the 12 best sea turtle species and subspecies and learn what is unique about each one and the threats that each is under. And it is not a tale to be told, Or a story to die, But a call To spearring, A call To rescue the living dinosaurs That are the blood Of the ocean world.

Understanding the Conservation Status: What Does "Endangered" Mean?

It is important to learn the language of conservation before we see the turtles. The most extensive catalogue of the world conservation status of all biological species is the International Union of Conservation Nature (IUCN) RedList. Its categories include:

• Critically Endangered (CR): There is a very high threat of becoming extinct in the wild.
• Endangered (EN): There is a very high extinction risk in the wild.
• Vulnerable (VU): There is a high risk of being endangered in the wild.
• Data Deficient (DD): The lack of information to decide to.

Using this structure, we are going to travel around the world to see 12 of the most endangered sea turtles.

1. Kemp’s Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii)

IUCN Status: Critically Endangered

Ridley Turtle is the smallest and the most threatened on the earth. Their nesting tended also to be in large colonies, in so-called arribadas (Spanish: arribada, meaning arrival) where thousands of females hatch simultaneously out of the water and their eggs are deposited on just a single beach.

• Ecology: The Gulf of Mexico mostly, but juveniles extend up the Atlantic into Nova Scotia.
• Major Threats: In recent times, their eggs were harvested to the point of almost extinction. Now, the biggest threat to them is that they can be caught in shrimp trawling nets by accident (bycatch). The other reason is loss of habitat and pollution.
• Distinguishing Characteristic: triangular-shaped head and grayish-green carapace (shell).

2. Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)

IUCN Status: Critically Endangered

The Hawksbill is, perhaps, the most aesthetically striking of all sea turtles, and its name is due to its pointed, sharp-looking beak, which serves to scavenge the sponges in the crevices of coral reefs.

• Habitat: Tropical reefs in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
• Significant risks: The illegal trade in wild animals is brutal and inhumane. They use their exquisitely patterned tortoiseshell in jewelry and ornaments. Coral reef degradation is also a major threat to them.
• Distinguishing Characteristic: The carapace has gorgeous overlapping scutes (scales) and their beak is like a hawk.

3. Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) – Certain Populations

IUCN Status: Endangered

The green turtle is a large, herbivorous turtle that plays an important role in keeping the seagrass beds healthy. Although the species is threatened in general, some regional groups, such as the Mediterranean and Pacific, are critically endangered.

• Habitat: Globally in subtropical and tropical water.
• Key Threats: People have been using their eggs and meat a long time. They are also very susceptible to fibropapillomatosis, a debilitating tumor causing disease associated with pollution.
• Distinguishing Characteristic: One pair of scales before its eyes (prefrontal scales), and a heart-shaped carapace that is smooth.

4. Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)

IUCN Status: Vulnerable

The leatherback is a real giant and biological wonder. It is the heaviest sea turtle, the deepest diver and the only turtle without a hard shell. It has rather leathery skin instead of a carapace.

• Habitat: The most common, extending north and south farther than any other turtle because it is the only one with the capability of controlling body temperature.
• Important Threats: Plastic pollution is the bane of leatherbacks. They confuse the floating plastic bags with their favorite prey, jellyfish that causes deadly intestinal obstructions. They also fall prey to bycatch.
• Distinguishing Characteristic: Absence of a hard shell, which has 7 separate ridges that track down the carapace.

5. Loggerhead Turtle (Caretta caretta)

IUCN Status: Vulnerable

Loggerheads are a durable species that is under heavy pressure, due to human activity, because of their huge heads and heavy jaws.

• Habitat: The Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Mediterranean Oceans.
• Threats of the highest importance: Bycatch remains the most serious threat and particularly among longline fisheries, gillnets, and trawling. Their nesting beaches are also destroyed during the development of the coast.
• Characteristic Difference: The huge head and huge jaws to dig out the hard shelled animals such as snails and slugs.

6. Olive Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea)

IUCN Status: Vulnerable

Olive Ridley is the most common type of sea turtle, however, the number of these turtles has dropped by a drastic margin, which makes the species vulnerable. It also has spectacular arribadas, much like the Kemp's Ridley.

• Habitat: Warm Pacific, Indian and South Atlantic Oceans.
• Key Threats: Mass bycatch. In arribadas, they become highly susceptible to getting trapped in fisheries nets and being killed. There are also many regions that highly harvest their eggs.
• Distinguishing Characteristic: A carapace is heart-shaped and olive/grey.

7. Australian Flatback Turtle (Natator depressus)

IUCN Status: Data Deficient

The special thing about this turtle is that the number of its eggs and hatchlings are bigger than the other turtles, and the turtle is only located in the northern Australian continental shelf.

• Habitat: It can only be found in northern Australian waters and southern Papua New Guinea waters.
• Noteworthy Threats: No such data exists, and the primary threats include development of coastal nesting sites of the species, marine pollution, and bycatch of Australian fisheries.
• Characteristic Mark: Shell is extremely flat, edges turned up, and the ground white.

8. The Eastern Pacific Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas agassizii)

IUCN Status: Endangered (Subspecies)

This is a genetically different type of green turtle and is in a very desperate state. Conservationists in the Americas are very concerned about it.

• Habitat: Coastal waters throughout the U.P. coast and Chile, including the Galapagos Islands.
• Major Threats: Poaching of meat is still a serious issue in most areas of Central and South America. The other big issue is habitat degradation.
• Distinguishing Character: Darker, generally black, carapace as compared to other green turtles.

9. North Pacific Loggerhead Turtle (Caretta caretta)

IUCN Status: Endangered (Regional Population)

This particular group of loggerheads that nest nearly solely in Japan, makes one of the longest documented migrations, spanning the entire Pacific Ocean to forage along the coasts of Mexico and California.

• Habitat: Nests in Japan; young nest in feeding grounds in the North Pacific, off Baja California, Mexico.
• Key Threats: Fishing-related impacts on the whole Pacific fishery (and especially exposure to fisheries during their long migration) include bycatch in longline and gillnet fisheries.
• Distinguishing Characteristic: Physically genetically different in comparison with Atlantic loggerheads.

10. Black Turtle (Chelonia mydas – Eastern Pacific Form)

IUCN Status: Endangered

The black turtle is a subspecies or variant of the green turtle (the argument persists), but it is darker in color, and is a key component of the Eastern Pacific ecosystem.

• Habitat: Just like the Eastern Pacific Green Turtle, between the U.S. and Chile.
• Major Threats: As with the Eastern Pacific Green Turtle: poaching, bycatch, loss of habitat.
• Distinguishing Characteristics A much darker, often entirely black, carapace and body.

11. The Mediterranean Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)

IUCN Status: Endangered (Regional Population)

The Mediterranean population of green turtles has its own genetic markers. They are small compared to their Atlantic and Pacific counterparts and are extremely reliant on particular seagrass meadows in their diet.

• Habitat: Mediterranean Sea, where it is also an important nesting area in Turkey, Cyprus and Greece.
• Major Threats: Coastal Development: Coastal development activities affect the seagrass habitat by introducing boat strike and by causing pollution and destruction by anchors.
• Salient feature: Smaller size and genetic isolation to the rest of the green turtle population.

12. The Arabian Sea Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas)

IUCN Status: Endangered (Regional Population)

It is one of the least studied populations, and one that was probably genetically isolated thousands of years ago and cannot be associated with other green turtles. Oman is virtually the only country they nest in.

• Habitat: One of the most extensive nesting grounds in the world is the Arabian Sea on the island of Masirah of Oman.
• Primary Threats: Industrial and tourist presence along the coast, fisheries bycatch and pollution of the tanker shipping route.
• Significant Genetic and Adaptation to the Arabian Sea Conditions.

How You Can Be a Part of the Solution: Conservation in Action

Things are serious with sea turtles, but not hopeless. We have demonstrated over decades of concerted conservation efforts that we can change. Here's how you can help

• What you can do to minimize your plastic footprint: Use single-use plastic (bags, bottles, and straws) no. One can take a little step to save the life of a turtle.
• Select Sustainable Seafood: Certifications such as MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) can now be found that can help bring sustainable fisheries, including ones with minimal bycatch, into practice.
• Give Nesting Turtles Room: When you visit or stay on a nesting beach or one near a nesting beach, you must keep away and never attempt to take flash photos at night and obey local ordinances.
• Turn off Lights on Beaches: Hatchlings are dependent on the natural moonlight of the ocean to find the ocean. Artificial lights disorient them and they perish.
• Donate to Established Conservation Organizations: Donate to non-profit groups such as the Sea Turtle Conservancy, the WWF or the Ocean Foundation who do research, protect beaches and lobby policy changes.
• Diffuse Awareness: put it into practice. The more people are aware of the plight of sea turtles, the more they will be able to do to rescue them.

A Legacy Worth Protecting

Sea turtles are not only beautiful species; they are key-stone species. They keep seagrass beds healthy (green turtles), regulate the populations of sponge on coral reefs (hawksbills), and carry nutrients in the ocean to the beach. They are closely associated with the health of our marine ecosystems - and, by extension, with our own survival.

What happened to these twelve threatened turtles is one part of a broader story on how we treat the natural world. We can do something small, and make sure that the ancient mariner will make its eternal cruise through the oceans millions of years later. It is up to us to make the decision.