Sea turtles face threats including bycatch, plastic ingestion, nest disturbance, and climate change, with conservation efforts that also need to consider the welfare of individual turtles.
Sea turtle conservation often focuses on population viability, but the welfare of individual turtles matters alongside population-level concerns. Turtles entangled in ghost fishing gear experience distress and injury during the hours or days before death or rescue. Turtles with intestinal plastic blockages experience pain and prolonged malnutrition before dying. Hatchlings disoriented by artificial lighting wander inland in distress before dying of dehydration or predation. Rehabilitation programmes that treat injured turtles provide direct welfare benefit to individuals while also contributing to population recovery through the release of recovered animals.