Sea turtles face threats from fishing bycatch, plastic pollution, climate change, and coastal development, with conservation programmes increasingly incorporating welfare considerations for individual turtles.
Individual sea turtles caught as bycatch experience acute distress, physical injury, and drowning. Turtles entangled in ghost fishing gear suffer prolonged suffering over days to weeks. Plastic ingestion causes intestinal blockage, starvation, and slow death. Temperature-dependent sex determination means climate change is creating female-skewed populations through warming nesting beaches. Conservation interventions including TEDs (turtle excluder devices) in trawl nets directly reduce individual turtle suffering while benefiting population recovery. Rehabilitation of injured turtles provides welfare benefits for individual animals.