Key issues in assessing threats to sea turtles: knowledge gaps and future directions

39 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, 2 appendixes, supplementary material https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01278

Sea turtles are an iconic group of marine megafauna that have been exposed to multiple anthropogenic threats across their different life stages, especially in the past decades. This has resulted in population declines, and consequently many sea turtle populations are now classified as threatened or endangered globally. Although some populations of sea turtles worldwide are showing early signs of recovery, many still face fundamental threats. This is problematic since sea turtles have important ecological roles. To encourage informed conservation planning and direct future research, we surveyed experts to identify the key contemporary threats (climate change, direct take, fisheries, pollution, disease, predation, and coastal and marine development) faced by sea turtles. Using the survey results and current literature, we also outline knowledge gaps in our understanding of the impact of these threats and how targeted future research, often involving emerging technologies, could close those gaps

M.M.P.B.F. was supported by the Developing Scholar Award from Florida State University. G.C.H. was supported by the Bertarelli Foundation as part of the Bertarelli Programme in Marine Science. N.J.R. was funded by the Spanish government (AEI) through the Ramon y Cajal postdoctoral program (No. RYC2021-034381-I). M.D.R. was supported by the US National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (No. 1907144). We thank Alexa Putillo, who developed Fig. 1, with funding from the American Geophysical Union

With the institutional support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S)

Peer reviewed