More about Marine turtles

Marine turtles have swum in the world’s oceans for over 100 million years. They have lungs just like us, so must come to the surface to breathe.

Location: Many species migrate for thousands of kilometres, even crossing entire oceans

Habitat: Open water and coastal habitats

Wild population: Six of the seven marine turtle species are endangered or critically endangered

The threats to marine turtles

• Accidental capture (bycatch) in fishing lines and nets
• Hunting and poaching for their shells, meat and eggs
• Tourism and litter disturbing and polluting their nesting beaches and feeding grounds
• A rise in global temperatures due to climate change

How your adoption can help:

• £60 (or £5 a month) could buy one pair of binoculars for policing Marine Protected Areas
• £120 (or £10 a month) could buy five disposable cameras to help communities gather turtle nesting data in Fiji

The Hawksbill turtles of Yadua Taba

The adopted hawksbill turtles live in the waters around Fiji. We have identified five females who return each year to nest on Talice beach, on the uninhabited island of Yadua Taba. We use flipper tags to track and record the turtles’ locations, to help us find out more about their movement patterns.