Green Turtles Crawling out of Endangered Species

Thanks to Conservation International, green turtles might now be a “vulnerable” specie instead of endangered

Recent developments in the conservation of green turtles in the Philippines have encountered a huge break as 1.4 million eggs were laid this year

According to Conservation International executive director Romeo Trono, there has been a marked increase of green turtles around the world, specifically the Turtle Islands sanctuary situated between Philippine and Malaysia. As of last year, there have been an astounding 1.44 million turtle egg shells that were laid along the beach, the highest number since they started keeping records in 1984. And this was just on Baguan which is only one of the nine islands that make up the turtle sanctuary.

Unfortunately, those 1.44 million eggs won’t all grow up to be part of the adult turtle community. The survival rate for these turtles is at 1% which means that out of the 1.44 million only about 14,000 of them will survive through adulthood and play a part in the reproduction of the next generation.

Reports reveal that should the excellent reproduction rate continue, the green turtles will be bumped from “endangered” to “vulnerable”. Even better is that with green turtles have  a life expectancy of roughly 100 years, which means that the large amount of baby turtles today would still be felt for the next century.

The turtles were originally wiped into the endangered list due to the high demand for them. According to Trono, during the early days of the project, the eggs were usually being wiped out by poachers. This is because the eggs are considered a delicacy in some parts of Asia and command a high price.

Photo courtesy of theoutdoorsguy.com