Studies have identified plastic pollution and fishing practices as major threats to sea turtles for several years. This knowledge is, at last, beginning to translate into action.
Nearly 200 Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii), green (Chelonia mydas) and loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtles washed up along the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coasts in April, the most deaths in one month since record keeping began in 1986. And 100 green sea turtles were found dead on the coast of Uruguay in the first three months of this year. The latter group died from ingestion of trash, primarily plastic. Most of the former showed signs of drowning in trawl nets.
Both events are the latest pointing to a larger trend in which pollution and fisheries practices pose significant obstacles worldwide to these endangered animals' recovery. Scientists who have been sounding the alarm for decades see these latest tragedies as the tipping point that may finally translate science into action.
Read the complete story from Scientific American.