Owain Johnston-Barnes
Published Apr 23, 2016 at 8:00 am (Updated Apr 23, 2016 at 2:14 am)

Threatened species: a green turtle at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo
(File photograph by Akil Simmons)

Green turtles have been removed from the endangered species list in Florida, with a researcher saying Bermuda played an important role.

American officials formally announced that the species had been moved from the endangered species list in both Florida and off the Pacific coast of Mexico, meaning that the species no longer faces the imminent threat of extinction in the region.

However, the turtles are still classified as “threatened” and will continue to be protected.

Peter Meylan, the principal investigator for the Bermuda Turtle Project, said a remarkable increase in females nesting in Floridian beaches was being credited for the change, but conservation efforts in Bermuda had also likely played a role.

“It is difficult to say exactly why the numbers of nesting females in Florida have increased so rapidly in the last few years, but we do know that conservation of larger size classes of turtles is very important for population stability and growth,” he said.

“It is very likely that Bermuda has played a role in the recovery of Florida green turtles. The Bermuda Turtle Project has shown that small green turtles grow up in Bermuda waters and then move on to adult foraging ranges elsewhere before they mature.

“Surviving those juvenile years is an extremely important step in the life history and Bermuda is clearly a great place for small green turtles to grow; and we know that many of the green turtles that inhabit Bermuda waters have come from Florida beaches.”

Dr Meylan added that while some green turtles found in Bermudian waters travelled to the island from Florida or Costa Rica — another location where conservation efforts have been successful — others come from regions still struggling to rebuild their turtle populations.

“The conservation outlook for some of these nesting areas is much less certain,” he said. “Our genetics work suggests that green turtles are coming from places like Mexico, Cuba, beaches in the southern Caribbean like Aves Island or Surinam and beaches in the South Atlantic, probably in Guinea-Bisseau, West Africa.

“There is a small chance that a few green turtles even come from the small and highly endangered population that nests in Cyprus in the Mediterranean, but that remains to be confirmed.

“The point is that Bermuda can serve for these other nesting beaches as it very likely has for Florida, a very important partner in the long and complex conservation process.”

Bermuda has long played a role in sea turtle conservation, introducing rules protecting juvenile turtles as far back as 1620.

Last August, local conservations celebrated a major success when it was discovered that green turtles had hatched at an East End beach, marking the first recorded hatching in Bermuda in more than 100 years.