05/04/2005 Climate change
is warming the earth. Ice is melting and sea
levels have started to rise. This causes damage,
with serious consequences for nature and for
coastal communities.
Scientists have now looked at the impacts
of sea level rise on sea turtles. These ancient
animals lay their eggs into the beach sand.
Many turtle species return to the exact beaches
that they were hatched to lay the eggs for
the next generation of turtles.
However, sea level rise threatens beach habitat
and turtle reproduction will be hard hit.
To investigate the threat of climate change,
a recent study examined the nesting sites
of sea turtles in the Caribbean Islands under
three likely sea-level rise scenarios.
The authors of this report found that with
a moderate 0.5 m rise in sea level, a third
of the total current beach area could be lost.
Among the 13 beaches that were surveyed one
particularly vulnerable beach could lose almost
its entire suitable sea turtle habitat. This
magnitude of beach habitat loss could literally
be the point of no return for populations
of already critically endangered sea turtles,
such as the hawksbill turtle.
WWF is working across the globe to help protect
hawksbill, leatherback, and other species
of sea turtles and the habitats that they
need to survive. They are threatened by hunting,
pollution, beach development (such as coastal
resorts), and by unsustainable fishing practices
(for example, unintentionally catching turtles
when harvesting fish). Now climate change
adds an additional threat.
“As we continue to pollute our atmosphere
with emissions from power plants, sea level
rise increases and will drastically reduce
sea turtle nesting sites,” says Michael Case,
WWF Climate Change Research Scientist. “Climate
change could well be the long-term threat
that determines whether some species of sea
turtles survive or go extinct.”
Will the people also be affected?
Nearly half of the world’s human populations
live within 200 km of coasts. Many countries
rely on the environmental and economic values
of coasts such as fishing, tourism, and transport.
Many of the largest cities are coastal cities,
for example London, New York, Shanghai and
Singapore.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC), the current rate
of sea level rise is 1-2 mm per year. By 2100
we could see the water rising between 90 and
880 mm. This rise in sea levels will have
a number of impacts including coastal flooding,
the destruction of coastal wetlands, increased
erosion of beaches and other coastal land.
We can only guess how prohibitively expensive
sea level rise will be.
Source: Fish et al. 2005. Predicting the Impact
of Sea-Level Rise on Caribbean Sea Turtle
Nesting Habitat. Conservation Biology 19(2):482-491.
