Saving sea turtles requires saving the Endangered Species Act

Green sea turtle hatchlings, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, poke through their eggshells under the sand and then scramble across the beach to the surf. While they’ll spend most of their lives offshore, the females return to the same beaches—generation after generation—to lay eggs.

In the 1960s, there were extremely low numbers of green sea turtle nests in Florida. Since then, numbers have gone back up—thanks in large part to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), our nation’s most effective law for protecting at-risk animals and plants—and the establishment of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge. In 2023, 61,000 nests were counted in Florida’s core nesting beaches.

But newly proposed rules, including one to remove “destruction of habitat” from the ESA’s definition of “harm” to a species, would limit the government’s ability to prevent habitat loss. And since the well-being of green sea turtles—and northern spotted owls, black-footed ferrets, and over 1,600 other ESA-listed species in the US—is tied to their habitats, we need to ensure strong protections are maintained.

To help, contact your members of Congress and ask them to oppose attempts to weaken the ESA and the protections it provides. Be a part of the effort to safeguard endangered species right here in the US.