Leatherback Sea Turtles Nesting & Laying Eggs on the Rise With COVID-19 Beach Closures

Illustration - JODY AMIET/AFP via Getty Images

Humans may be struggling with the strict closures and lockdowns imposed on them across the globe thanks to COVID-19, yet many wild animals have been thriving with the absence of humans and their pollution as a result—including baby leatherback sea turtles, which have seen their numbers boom with beach closures in Thailand.

According to The Guardian, the number of leatherback sea turtle nests spotted by conservationists in Thailand since November is up, with 11 different nests being spotted—the largest number in two decades.

Kongkiat Kittiwatanawong, the director of the Phuket Marine Biological Centre, explained that the absence of humans on the beaches due to closures and restrictions has freed up space for the rare turtles to nest and reproduce. That’s huge, she explained, since humans have made it incredibly difficult for these turtles to find safe places for their nests in recent years.

“This is a very good sign for us because many areas for spawning have been destroyed by humans,” she said. “If we compare to the year before, we didn’t have this many spawn, because turtles have a high risk of getting killed by fishing gear and humans disturbing the beach.”

The Thai beaches aren’t the only places that turtles are reaping the rewards of human absence during the pandemic crisis, either.

In Florida, Juno Beach, a 9.5-mile stretch of sand and shore north of Palm Beach, is often a popular tourist destination; however, restrictions on travel, vacation crowds, and tourism during the pandemic have left the beach untouched enough to make it possible for turtles to nest there as well. The Guardian reported that ecologists discovered 76 leatherback sea turtle nests there as well, a “significant” increase over last year.

“The chances that turtles are going to be inadvertently struck and killed will be lower,” Godfrey told West Palm Beach’s local CBS 12 news. “All of the reduced human presence on the beach also means that there will be less garbage and other plastics entering the marine environment. Ingestion and entanglement in plastic and marine debris also are leading causes of injury to sea turtles.”

Leatherback sea turtles are the largest living turtles on record; however, the very low survival rate of their eggs—just one in 1,000 eggs laid will survive to hatch—combined with human disruption on beaches, leave the species in danger. Currently, the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists them as a vulnerable species.

Hopefully, with humans interrupting beaches less this season, the turtles will be yet another animal that benefits from a safer, cleaner environment.