Turtle Research Fact File

Some people who love sea turtles and wish to protect them from injury and disturbance may be hesitant to allow research to be conducted on turtles that may appear to effect the turtles physically or behaviorally. While such concerns are well-intentioned, these concerns can be misinformed and serve to impede the progress of research and conservation of sea turtles.

Without conducting standard types of research on sea turtles, we cannot answer important questions about their origins, their history, their population numbers, their relations to other populations, their health, their migration routes, threats to their existence, and their behavioral responses to changes in the environment. This kind of information is vitally important for managing sea turtle populations and protected areas, and for developing policies for the protection of sea turtles species around the world.

We've developed this Turtle Research Fact File to provide a resource center for people interested in learning more about sea turtle research, why it is important, and how different research methods impact sea turtle health and behavior.