Leatherback sea turtles are the largest living reptiles and undertake extraordinary transoceanic migrations, but populations face severe declines from bycatch, plastic ingestion, and nesting beach loss.
Leatherback sea turtles that ingest plastic bags experience gradual digestive obstruction — a prolonged welfare harm that is both painful and ultimately fatal. Bycatch drowning in longline and gillnet gear causes death over minutes to hours. Nesting females that encounter developed beaches, artificial lighting that disorients them and their hatchlings, and sand temperatures that skew sex ratios face multiple compounding challenges. The near-extinction of Pacific leatherbacks represents one of the most severe large animal population crises of recent decades, and the welfare of the approximately 2,500 remaining adult females deserves the same urgent attention as the population-level conservation emergency.