Advocacy
The Foundation provides the ‘voice of the sea turtle’ on human caused issues that are negatively impacting their life expectancy. The current high priority advocacy topics include:
- Climate change
Rising sand temperatures are skewing sex ratios with warmer temperatures producing more females which will impact breeding success rates over time. The rise in sea-level causes coastal erosion and inundates nesting beaches impacting the safety of nests and causing the death of turtles prior to hatching.
- Habitat loss
Coastal and offshore developments in Australia and the Pacific, e.g. north west shelf of Western Australia, are increasingly destroying nesting beaches forcing females to find new, and potentially less safe, locations to lay their eggs. Coastal activities such as dredging and run off pollution from agriculture is damaging foraging grounds, such as sea grass beds.
- Beach nets
State governments and local councils are using netting on major beaches to protect against shark attacks. Migrating turtles, alongside many other marine species, are often caught up in these nets and subsequently drown if not freed in time.
- Bycatch
Sea turtles are often accidentally caught and drown in discarded and active commercial and recreational fishing gear like crab pots, fishing line, gill nets/ghost nets, trawls, and longlines.
- Pollution
Plastic debris, e.g. balloons and plastic bags, in the water looks like food to sea turtles and is often ingested causing significant health issues or death. Similarly, their health is being impacted by the effect of toxic runoff and oil spills that contaminate the water and food chain leading to death and instability of food resources and habitats.
- Vessel strikes
Turtles are being hit and injured or killed by boats and ships. The damage is caused by the bottom of the vessel or the propeller leaving a deep gash, often in the turtle’s carapace. Vessel strikes are often fatal, however, if the turtle can be saved, the rehabilitation timeframe is often many months to years.
- Light pollution
Lights from coastal development are disorienting to nesting females, deterring them from nesting, and instead causing them to return to the water. Hatchlings automatically head towards light which is often the moon’s reflection over the ocean. Artificial lights on beach promenades or coastal developments such as hotels and apartments, disorient the hatchlings leading them away from the sea and towards danger, e.g. roads and footpaths.
The Foundation advocates to governments at all levels, and corporations, either individually or by partnering with other aligned organisations, to improve outcomes for sea turtles.