Thinking about beaches, turtle eggs and a Green Turtle victory
Posted By RichC on October 18, 2025
Brenda and I are beach walkers and when in Delray Beach … or any beach for that matter … we walk in all kinds of weather. A week or so ago we were surprised at the heavy erosion along Florida’s Atlantic beaches, which can be somewhat normal with storm surf, higher winds and tides. This year the hurricanes haven’t really been an issue, but area beach flooding and erosion has been a problem (video from Thursday).
EDIT add: Re-testing the AWS Amazon Polly text-to-speech AI just in case you might want the text and article below in audio.
While we were walking, we found that many of the marked/staked turtle nests had been washed away and that soft turtle eggs were showing up on the beach. I don’t know if it helps, but I did collect some and buried them in spots further up towards and slightly into the dunes. I hope that the sun can warm them and that they might hatch?
We unfortunately also came across a few dead turtles which had me reading a bit more about them … and feeling better to know that the “Green turtles are bouncing back from the brink” … as a BBC environment article states:
Green turtle bounces back from brink in conservation ‘win’
The green turtle has been rescued from the brink of extinction in what scientists are calling a major conservation victory.
Once hunted extensively for turtle soup, its eggs as a delicacy and decorative shells, the ancient mariner saw its numbers plummet and has been listed as endangered since the 1980s.
Now, thanks to decades of global conservation efforts – from protecting eggs and releasing hatchlings on beaches, to reducing accidental capture in fishing nets – new data shows green turtle populations are rebounding.
“We must use this win as a catalyst to achieve numerous other wins,” said Dr Nicolas Pilcher of the Marine Research Foundation, a non-profit based in Sabah, Malaysia.
Green turtles are one of the largest species of sea turtles, named for the greenish colour of their body fat, which comes from their plant-based diet.
They are one of seven living species of sea turtles, two of which are critically endangered.
Prof Brendan Godley, a conservation scientist at the University of Exeter, said green turtle populations in many parts of the world are showing signs of recovery due to conservation efforts over the last five decades, and while this work must continue for years to come, it gives cause for optimism.
“Sea turtles are iconic and charismatic species… they inspire people,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands of people have been working for decades to try and look after these creatures, and undoubtedly, it has had an impact.”
The conservation efforts include patrolling beaches, protecting females and their eggs at nesting sites, releasing hatchlings into the sea, education and awareness to reduce turtles being killed for meat and eggs, and using measures to stop turtles being captured in fishing nets.
AND … since I was busy tinkering with Handbrake and encoding video for yesterday’s Tech Friday post, I have one more short one that I’ll include below:
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