Sea turtles were already navigating the oceans when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. But these ancient creatures face an uncertain future. All seven sea turtle species are currently endangered or threatened, notes Christine Figgener, a German-born conservation biologist who has been working on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica for the past 16 years.
The number of nesting females on the beaches she studies is down more than 80 percent from when she first arrived there, Figgener said in an interview with Yale Environment 360. It’s part of a global decline driven by a perfect storm of threats including plastics in the ocean, chemical pollution, industrial fishing, and unregulated coastal development.
Figgener, 40, gained international attention when a video that she took of a sea turtle with a plastic straw lodged in its nostril went…
Read the full article originally published at e360.yale.edu.