Conservation of sea turtles along much of Africa’s east coast has made good progress in recent decades, but tens of thousands of turtles still die each year due to human activity, researchers say.
Experts reviewed evidence from 1965 to the present about sea turtles along the coast of Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa.
Success stories include growing numbers of loggerhead turtles in South Africa and Mozambique, and increasingly effective conservation networks – including one covering most of Tanzania’s coast.
But the illegal take of turtles, bycatch (accidental catching) and loss of nesting and foraging habitats remain major threats, with “conservative estimates” of turtles killed by human activity in the tens of thousands annually.
The research team, led by the University of Exeter, included experts from Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique,…
