Amidst the tide ofplastic pollution , beached whales , and dwindling coral Reef , some good newshas just come out of our ocean . Green turtleneck , an endangered maritime turtleneck mintage name for the layer of greenish fatty tissue under their casing , are on the up in Pacific coral reefs .
The novel study , bring out in the journalPLOS ONE , assessed number of both fleeceable and Eretmochelys imbricata turtles , acritically menace speciesthat has been vastly exploited by humans for its beautiful tortoiseshell . Both specie have suffered from habitat loss , while green polo-neck have also been hunted for heart .
The researchers looked at data comprise 13 year ’ Charles Frederick Worth of in - water visual surveys that tape turtle number near 53 island , atolls , and reefs in US Pacific weewee .
So how do you go about reckon turtles ? You bond two divers to the back of a slowly - go boat , of course . The divers , about 15 meters ( 50 feet ) down , immortalise any sea life they spot as they peer beneath the waves . The surveys examine by the team report a total of 7,300 linear kilometers ( 4,500 geographical mile ) and record 3,400 turtle .
In - water surveys are useful as they put down turtle abundances in the habitats where they spend most of their time . Many study phonograph record turtle numbers on Edwin Herbert Land when the reptilian go far on beaches to lay their eggs . Underwater surveys can help support number recorded on ground .
For years environmentalist have been working to protect turtle specie , and the researchers find that for unripe turtle , this work has paid off . During the 13 - year sampling period ( 2002 - 2015 ) , green turtle population either stay changeless or increased . The brute were most abundant in the Pacific Remote Islands Area , where few citizenry survive , about 1,600 km ( 1,000 miles ) south of Hawaii . Meanwhile , population development was mellow around Hawaii ’s island , despite this being the expanse with the lowest universe density overall . Hence , conservation measures in Hawaii appear to be working .
unhappily , it is not such good word for the hawksbill turtle . They were most abundant in the body of water of American Samoa but overall , they made up just 8.3 percent of polo-neck sighting .
“ This suggests that green turtle are nearly 11 sentence more abundant than tortoiseshell turtle across the intact sight area , put up further empirical grounds of the rarity and conservationplight of Eretmochelys imbricata , ” the researchers write .
It seems the mounting threats of fisheries , befoulment , touristry , clime change , and drilling for oil and gaseous state are too much for this polo-neck to agitate back against . Illegal trade in their shellsalso existsto fulfill the “ eager market ” for tortoiseshell-cat in Asia . The animals are also very dependant on highly threatened coral Witwatersrand habitat where they survive off sponges and invertebrates . As we lose these coral reefs , we drop off the turtles too .
While green turtleneck populations seem to be static or increasing in Pacific coral reefs , this is not the only home ground in which these creatures are found . They live throughout the earth ’s tropic and sub - tropical H2O , so the form found in the Pacific may not be echoed elsewhere . Still , with the majority of ocean turtleneck species at risk of extinction thanks to man , increase green turtleneck number in the Pacific certainly comes as welcome news .
