Green Turtle

Green turtles are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Eleven populations are listed as endangered or threatened under the Act. This means that the green turtle is in danger of extinction, now or in the foreseeable future, throughout all or a significant portion of its range. NOAA Fisheries is working to protect this species in many ways, with the goal that populations will increase worldwide.

In the United States, NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have joint jurisdiction for sea turtles, with NOAA having the lead in the marine environment and U.S. FWS having the lead on the nesting beaches. Both federal agencies, along with many state agencies and international partners, have issued regulations to eliminate or reduce threats to sea turtles, while working together to recover them.

Recovery Action

To help identify and guide the protection, conservation, and recovery of sea turtles, the ESA requires NOAA Fisheries and U.S. FWS to develop and implement recovery plans, in close coordination with stakeholders, for each listed sea turtle species. Recovery plans provide a blueprint for conservation of the species and measurable criteria to gauge progress toward recovery.

The major recovery actions for green sea turtles include:

• Protecting turtles on nesting beaches.

• Protecting nesting and foraging habitats.

• Reducing bycatch in commercial and recreational fisheries.

• Reducing the effects of entanglement and ingestion of marine debris.

• Studying the impact of diseases on turtles.

• Working with partners internationally to protect turtles in all life-stages in foreign waters.

• Supporting research and conservation projects consistent with Recovery Plan priorities.

Three recovery plans have been developed to recover and protect green turtle populations. Each is focused on the unique needs of turtles in the various regions. Recovery Plans are periodically reviewed and updated as necessary. Current recovery plans for green turtles:

• U.S. Population of Atlantic Green Turtle 

• U.S. Pacific Populations of the East Pacific Green Turtle

• U.S. Pacific Populations of Green Turtle

The highly migratory behavior of sea turtles makes them shared resources among many nations, so conservation efforts for sea turtle populations in one country may be jeopardized by activities in another. This means that protecting sea turtles on U.S. nesting beaches and in U.S. waters alone is not enough to ensure the continued existence of the species. Learn more about international conservation efforts below.

Implementation

NOAA Fisheries is working to minimize effects from human activities that are detrimental to the recovery of green sea turtle populations in the United States and internationally. Together with our partners, we undertake numerous activities to support the goals of the green turtle recovery plans, with the ultimate goal to delist the species.

Efforts to conserve green turtles include:

• Protecting habitat and designating critical habitat.

• Reducing bycatch.

• Rescue, disentanglement, and rehabilitation.

• Eliminating the harvest of turtles and their eggs.

• Eliminating the harassment of turtles on nesting beaches through education and enforcement.

• Consulting with federal agencies to ensure their activities are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of listed species.

Conservation efforts have been successful. The protection of nesting beaches, reduction of bycatch in fisheries, and prohibitions on the direct harvest of sea turtles and their eggs, have led to increasing numbers of green turtles nesting in Florida, along the Pacific coast of Mexico, and in Hawaii. Because of successful efforts, NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. FWS revised the listing for green sea turtles under the ESA in 2016, reclassifying turtles originating from two breeding populations (Florida and Pacific coast of Mexico) from endangered to threatened status.

While threats remain for green sea turtles globally, the reclassification of green sea turtles in Florida and Mexico shows how domestic and international partnerships are making a real difference for some of our planet’s most imperiled marine species.

Green sea turtle grazing seagrass at Akumal Bay. Photo: P. Lindgren, CC BY-SA 3.0

Critical Habitat

Once a species is listed under the ESA, NOAA Fisheries evaluates and identifies whether any areas meet the definition of critical habitat. Those areas may be designated as critical habitat through a rulemaking process.

The designation of an area as critical habitat does not create a closed area, marine protected area, refuge, wilderness reserve, preservation, or other conservation area; nor does the designation affect land ownership. Federal agencies that undertake, fund, or permit activities that may affect these designated critical habitat areas are required to consult with NOAA Fisheries to ensure that their actions do not adversely modify or destroy designated critical habitat.

In 1998, it was determined that habitat loss and degradation of seagrass beds were primary factors slowing the recovery of green turtles in the Caribbean. As a result, NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated critical habitat for green turtles to include the coastal waters around Culebra Island, Puerto Rico. The Culebra seagrass beds provide important foraging habitat for sea turtles, as well as other many other marine species.

Find the green sea turtle critical habitat map

We are in the process of identifying other potential critical habitat, which will be proposed in a future rulemaking.

Reducing Bycatch

To reduce the bycatch of sea turtles in commercial fisheries, we have enacted regulations to reduce bycatch in certain U.S. commercial fishing gears (gillnets, longlines, pound nets, and trawls) that unintentionally capture sea turtles. Measures include:

• Gear modifications.

• Changes to fishing practices.

• Time/area closures.

In the United States, NOAA Fisheries has worked closely with the shrimp trawl fishing industry to develop turtle excluder devices to reduce the mortality of sea turtles incidentally captured in shrimp trawl gear. These devices (commonly called TEDs) are large enough to exclude even the largest sea turtles and are required for use in shrimp otter trawl nets.

Since 1989, the United States has prohibited the importation of shrimp harvested in a manner that adversely affects sea turtles. The import ban does not apply to nations that have adopted sea turtle protection programs comparable to that of the United States. (i.e., require and enforce the use of TEDs) or to nations where bycatch in shrimp fisheries does not present a threat to sea turtles (for example, nations that fish for shrimp in areas where sea turtles do not occur). The U.S. Department of State is the principal agency of this law, while we serve as technical advisor. We provide extensive TED training throughout the world.

Additionally, we have been involved in cooperative gear research projects, implementation of changes to gear and fishing practices, and safe handling protocols designed to reduce sea turtle bycatch and mortality in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic pelagic longline fisheries, the American Samoa and Hawaii-based longline fisheries, the Atlantic sea scallop dredge fishery, the Chesapeake Bay pound net fishery, and non-shrimp trawl fisheries in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.

Utilizing Fisheries Observers

Bycatch in fishing gear is the primary anthropogenic source of sea turtle injury and mortality in U.S. waters. The most effective way to learn about sea turtle-fishery interactions is to place observers aboard fishing vessels. Under the ESA, NOAA Fisheries identifies commercial and/or recreational fisheries in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific Ocean that are required to have observers to record sea turtle interactions. The purpose of observing these fisheries is to:

• Learn more about sea turtle interactions.

• Evaluate measures to reduce fisheries impacts/bycatch of protected sea turtles.  

• Determine whether additional measures may be necessary to prevent sea turtle bycatch.

NOAA Fisheries determines which fisheries are required to carry observers to monitor potential interactions with sea turtles through an annual determination. Observers may also be placed on fisheries through our authorities under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Responding to Strandings and Entanglements

A stranded sea turtle is one that is found on land or in the water dead, injured, sick, or exhibiting usual behavior. One of the most well-known examples of mass strandings is when cold-stunned sea turtles strand during winter months on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. During these events, thousands of turtles may require care.

The Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network was established in response to the need to better understand the threats sea turtles face in the marine environment, to provide aid to stranded sea turtles, and to salvage dead sea turtles that may be useful for scientific and educational purposes. The network collects information on and documents strandings of marine turtles along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts and includes federal, state, and private partners. This information is compiled into a centralized database.

NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center’s Marine Turtle Biology and Assessment Program rehabilitates and studies stranded sea turtles throughout the Hawaiian Islands. Other state and local organizations respond to sea turtle strandings on the U.S. West Coast.

The actions taken by stranding network participants improve the survivability of sick, injured, and entangled turtles while also helping scientists and managers expand their knowledge about threats to sea turtles and causes of mortality.

Participating in International Conservation Efforts

The conservation and recovery of sea turtles requires international cooperation and agreements to ensure the survival of these highly migratory animals. We have a broad national and international program and work closely with partners under two international environmental agreements that deal exclusively with sea turtle conservation:

• Indian Ocean - South-East Asian (IOSEA) Marine Turtle Memorandum of Understanding

• Inter-American Convention (IAC) for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles

Additional international treaties and agreements include:

• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) - listed in Appendix I, which prohibits international trade of wild flora and fauna.

Cartagena Convention - protected under Annex II of the Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) Protocol.

The green sea turtle was first listed under the ESA in 1978. In April 2016, we revised this by listing eight distinct population segments (DPS) as threatened and three DPS as endangered. The 2015 ESA status review provided the scientific basis to revise the ESA listings.

In 1992, we finalized regulations to require turtle excluder devices in shrimp trawl fisheries to reduce interactions between turtles and trawl gear. Since then, we have changed these regulations as new information became available on increasing the efficiency of TEDs. For example, larger TEDs are now required to exclude larger turtles.

We have implemented additional measures to reduce sea turtle interactions in fisheries through regulations and permits under both the ESA and Magnuson-Stevens Act including the use of large circle hooks in longline fisheries, time and area closures for gillnets, and modifications to pound net leaders.

See all regulations to protect sea turtles. 

NOAA Fisheries conducts various research activities on the biology, behavior, and ecology of the green sea turtle. The results of this research are used to inform management decisions and enhance recovery efforts for endangered and threatened green turtle populations.

Population Assessments

Turtle population assessments ideally include information on the species’ abundance and distribution, life history, and human impacts. This information can help us evaluate the effectiveness of conservation and recovery measures, and can help guide actions to enhance recovery. To estimate population abundance, researchers conduct aerial and vessel-based surveys of selected areas and capture and mark turtles in the water and on beaches. We also incorporate data collected on nesting beaches, via stranding networks, and from fisheries observer programs. Other information that informs sea turtle population assessments includes population structure (genetic analyses), age to maturity, survivorship of the various life stages (e.g., hatchling, juvenile, adult), foraging and reproductive behavior, movement and distribution, and habitat studies.

Green sea turtle. Photo: Dave Burdick, NOAA PIFSC

Satellite Tagging and Tracking Studies

Satellite telemetry allows researchers to track sea turtles as they swim from place to place. These satellite tags are designed and attached in a manner that minimizes disturbance to the turtle. The tags will eventually fall off. The data help us understand migration patterns, identify feeding areas, and identify where turtles overlap with their primary threats (e.g., fishing gear).

Research to Reduce Bycatch in Fishing Gear

We observe fisheries to understand the amount of sea turtle bycatch in various fisheries and the ways in which leatherbacks interact with fishing gear. We develop, evaluate, and modify fishing gear and/or fishing practices to reduce sea turtle bycatch while at the same time retaining a sustainable fish catch. These efforts include TED development for trawl fisheries, use of circle hooks and certain bait types in longline fisheries, time and area closures for gillnets, and modifications to pound net leaders.

Learn more about our fishing gear research

Sea Turtle Genetics

NOAA Fisheries’ National Sea Turtle Molecular Genetics Center serves as a worldwide central depository for sea turtle tissue and DNA samples and constitutes a major area of research supporting sea turtle conservation. For example, a turtle’s unique genetic “fingerprint” can be used to determine its nesting population and home nesting beach.

Learn more about our turtle genetics and isotope studies 

Life History

Life history studies include gathering information on such things as migration patterns, where turtles nest and forage, growth rates, age to maturity, and sex ratios. This information is important in understanding key biological parameters that influence population trends and inform conservation status.