Wildlife

Sea turtles are bouncing back

By Earth to Sea News · July 2026

Decades of protection are paying off. In Indonesia's Kei Islands, turtle and nest harvesting has fallen 85%, and populations are rebounding.

Sea turtles have been swimming the world's oceans for more than 100 million years, watching the dinosaurs come and go, and after a rough century at human hands the ancient mariners are writing themselves a comeback story. In Indonesia's Kei Islands, conservation led by local communities has cut the harvesting of turtles and their nests by a remarkable 85%: villages that once collected eggs now guard the beaches where they're laid, and nesting numbers are steadily climbing.

It's part of a bigger, brighter picture. Green turtle populations are recovering wherever they've been given genuine protection, from Mexico's Pacific beaches to the southern Great Barrier Reef, whose nesting islands welcome thousands of females ashore each summer. Turtle conservation is a long game: a hatchling that scrambles down the beach tonight won't return to nest for twenty or thirty years, so today's recoveries are the reward for decades of patience, and a reason to keep going.

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