Green Sea Turtle
Chelonia mydas

Threats to survival

Although the green turtle has a large world-wide population compared to many other species of turtle, its survival is still threatened. Causes are:

Loss of habitat due to coastal development, including tourism and idustrialisation	Accidental capture by fishing activities	Pollution due to industrial waste, marine debris etc	Collision with motorboats	Photopollution
Human predation (egg collecting, meat consumption, carapace exploitation)	Animal predation

Human predation:

• Due to egg collecting which are used as an aphrodisiac in many countries and sell for high price. Thousands of eggs taken from nests each year.

• Meat eating: regarded as the most palatable of all the turtle meat, hundreds of wild Green Turtles are killed each year for their flesh and manufacture of turtle soup. Modern turtle "ranching" has possibly reduced this number.
• Turtle-shell: by product of killing for flesh, but low demand.

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