Marine turtle populations are recovering under strong conservation programs, but welfare threats from bycatch, pollution, climate change, and beach development continue to affect millions of individuals.
Marine turtles face welfare threats at every life stage. Entanglement in fishing gear causes drowning, exhaustion, and severe injuries. Plastic ingestion causes gut blockages, internal injuries, and malnutrition. Light pollution causes disorientation during the critical nesting and hatchling emergence periods. Climate-induced sex ratio skewing threatens long-term population viability. For individual animals, these threats cause acute and chronic suffering — turtles rescued from entanglement or stranded with severe plastic-related blockages require intensive veterinary care to have any chance of survival. Reducing these welfare threats requires action at multiple scales, from individual consumer choices to international fishing regulations.