I’m sure you already know about climate change and the effects it can have on the ocean. But how will it affect sea turtles?

Rising seas will definitely affect sea turtles. As the climate warms and sea ice melts, rising tides could damage nesting beaches. Also, climate change can lead to more frequent storms, bad news for sea turtles that like to nest on tropical and subtropical beaches. Strong hurricanes and typhoons can devastate beaches and can even wipe out entire islands that are important nesting sites for turtles. The list of problems that climate change can cause for turtles goes on and on, but one that people often forget is that temperature determines if a turtle is going to be female or male.

During development inside the egg, there is a critical period when the turtle embryo will be a male or a female and the temperature at which the eggs are incubating determines this. If the nest it too hot, there will be more females and if the nest is too cold, then there will be more males. As the climate warms this poses a major problem for sea turtles. If global temperatures rise too much it is possible that all the sea turtles born will be female, shifting the sex ratio and potentially leading to extinction by lack of males. Check out this great video by National Geographic for more details!