A new report has highlighted the maritime border zone between Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines as a hotbed for the illegal wildlife trade, and called for urgent intergovernmental action to protect this biodiversity hotspot at the apex of the Coral Triangle. Wildlife trade monitoring nonprofit TRAFFIC documented and analyzed the seizure of more than 25,000 […]
Tag: marine turtles
Former Turtle Egg Poachers in the Philippines Turn Protectors
Growing up in the Philippines, construction worker Johnny Manlugay combs the beaches each night for the eggs of sea turtles. He knows exactly what to look for, as he was trained as a child by his grandfather on how to locate the animals and their eggs. Back then, his family traded or ate them. It […]
Every sea turtle in global study found to have synthetic fibers and microplastics in their guts
A recent study found microplastics in the intestines of humans around the globe, and new research has now done the same for sea turtles. Researchers at the UK’s University of Exeter and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, a research organization also in the UK, led a team that studied 102 sea turtles in the Atlantic and […]
Featured video: saving sea turtles in Mexico’s Magdalena Bay
A new short film, Viva la tortuga documents the struggle to save loggerhead and green sea turtles in Magdalena Bay, Mexico. Once a region for a massive sea turtle meat market, the turtles now face a new threat: bycatch. Loggerhead sea turtles are drowning in bottom-set gillnets, unable to escape from the nets once entangled. […]