By KiddieDaily Editors · Published 2026-05-03 · 3 min read

Sea Turtles Are Making a Comeback

After decades of decline, sea turtle populations in the Atlantic are growing again. Here's what people did to help — and what's still left to do.

Sea turtles have been swimming in Earth's oceans for about 100 million years. They were here with the dinosaurs. They survived whatever wiped out the dinosaurs. They almost didn't survive us.

By the 1980s, several sea turtle species had dropped to dangerously low numbers. Loggerhead turtles, green turtles, and leatherbacks were all listed as endangered or threatened. The reasons were familiar: fishing nets caught them, plastic bags looked like jellyfish (a favorite food), and beachfront development covered the sandy spots where mothers lay their eggs.

Now, finally, the numbers are turning around.

What changed

Several things had to happen at the same time:

• Special escape hatches in fishing nets. The U.S. and many other countries now require shrimp trawlers to use "turtle excluder devices" — a flap that lets a turtle pop out instead of drowning in the net.
• Protected nesting beaches. Volunteers in Florida, Georgia, and Mexico walk the beaches at night during nesting season, mark nests with little fences, and shoo away predators.
• Plastic bag bans. Cities and countries that banned single-use plastic bags reduced the number that end up in the ocean.

Where things stand

According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), green sea turtle populations in Florida have grown by hundreds of percent since the 1980s. Loggerheads are recovering more slowly but trending up. Leatherbacks — the biggest species — are still in serious trouble in some regions.

It's not over. Climate change warms the sand on nesting beaches, and warm sand produces mostly female hatchlings — which means future populations might have too few males. Scientists are studying it.

What you can do

• If you visit a turtle beach, don't shine flashlights at the sand at night. Baby turtles use the moon to find the ocean, and a flashlight confuses them.
• Don't release balloons into the air. They almost always land in the ocean and look like jellyfish to a hungry turtle.
• If your family visits the beach, take any plastic trash with you when you leave.