Tuesday marked an interesting day in sea turtle conservation. The Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs (AOHCC) filed a petition with the federal government to classify the green turtles found around Hawaii as a distinct population segment. To do so, however, the Hawaiian green turtle would need to be removed from the Endangered Species Act.

Proponents of the petition have some scientific support for their cause. Honu, as the Hawaiian green turtle is locally known, have strong nesting success. Since the 1970s, the nesting population has been increasing an average of 5.7% each year. These green sea turtles nest in the Hawaiian Islands, most within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (an area the size of California). Adults also seem to remain in the area of the volcanic island chain.

Sea turtles in general are a highly migratory species, traveling through many different waters. For many years their juvenile life remained a mystery. They were seen crawling from a nest, then seemingly vanished, only to return years later as mature adults. Green turtles are also extremely slow in maturing, sometimes not reaching maturity until 35-40 years of age. As a species, the green sea turtle is threatened throughout its range, with the exception of Florida and Mexico’s Pacific Coast – where they are endangered.

The delisting of the honu would not leave it unprotected. Management would transfer to Hawaii. AOHCC Preseident Soulee Stroud has said, “This would be wonderful to bring the management of this important cultural animal back to the people of Hawaii.” Since the honu has cultural and religious significance in Hawaii, there is no doubt that they would work hard to protect them, but could this open a dangerous precedent? Should a migratory species be broken into distinct population segments?

Despite the prospect of global warming skewing hatchling gender ratios in upcoming years, there is some good news for sea turtle conservationists. New research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B at least one species may have a way to counteract the presence of female predominated nests.

Warmer temperatures mean warmer nests. Warmer nests mean more females, as sea turtle sex is temperature dependent. This could lead to a scarcity of males and therefore result in an inbred population (with few males to go around, many hatchlings would share the same dad). Examples of green sea turtle nesting in Cyprus, however, show that inbreeding need not occur.

In a country where the sizzling summer temperatures routinely result in nests composed of up to 95% females,  the population still remains genetically diverse. Since female turtles are able to be fertilized by more than one male and produce offspring from both, they can broaden the gene pool. Of the 20 nesting females monitored by Wright et al. they had eggs fertilized by an average of 1.4 males.

The highly migratory nature of sea turtles also plays to their advantage here, as males logged thousands of miles in just one nesting season. Therefore warmer nests need not result in an ocean absent of male sea turtles.

We are already all too familiar with the interaction between plastics and sea turtles, but a new study has provided additional information about the interactions between plastics in turtles.

Researchers from Germany and Australia have looked at what happens to different types of plastic bags as they are passed through the digestive tract of a both green and loggerhead sea turtles. The scientists were particularly interested in noting the differences in degradation (if any) between the standard grocery store plastic bag, the degradable plastic bag, and the biodegradable plastic bag. No turtles were harmed in the experiment, since the digestive fluids were taken from recently deceased loggerhead and green turtles.

Not surprising, the standard plastic bag and the degradable plastic bag underwent no significant change. There were high hopes that the biodegradable bag would be significantly broken down, as the manufactures claim when composted the bags break down in only 49 days. After 49 days in the gastric fluids of green and loggerhead turtles, the biodegradable bags had barely broken down at all, in some cases as little as 3% in the loggerhead. The green turtles fluids did a slightly better job of digesting the biodegradable material (9%), probably due to their herbivore diet, allowing them to more efficiently break down cellulose.

Over 177 marine species have been recorded to ingest man-made plastics, including 86% of sea turtles. Due to the presence of papillae lining their esophagus, it makes it almost impossible for the turtles to regurgitate the bags leading to gut impactions and perforations. These sobering results, published by Muller C. et al in Science of the Total Environment further demonstrate that all bags pose significant risk to marine life.