Migratory marine species population declines are early warning indicators of extinction risk, loss of healthy ocean ecosystems and vital ecological functions, and are an economic risk, raising concern for human welfare. There is an urgent need for innovative approaches to recover marine turtle populations. The time to act is now.
A new global collaborative project is now underway to inform marine turtle conservation at scale, and meet national, regional, and international policy goals and targets that will help drive marine turtle recovery worldwide. For the first time, Blue Corridors for Turtles will connect movement data with genetics (using ShellBank) and at a global scale, establish Important Marine Turtle Areas.
Blue Corridors for Turtles aspires to be a pivotal force for marine turtle conservation on a global scale—identifying the most at-risk populations and the Important Marine Turtle Areas most in need of urgent protection. By connecting communities and turtles along their entire blue corridors—the interconnected nesting sites, migratory pathways and foraging areas of genetically distinct populations—and by undertaking spatial threat analyses at the population level, we will identify where conservation efforts are most needed.