There are seven species of sea turtle and all are considered to be threatened. However, the hawksbill turtle, found in the tropics of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, is the only species that is critically endangered. They have a hooked beak, reminiscent of a hawk, which they use to eat corals and sponges. Adult hawksbills travel enormous distances to nesting grounds and can lay up to 180 eggs which incubate in the warm sand for two months before the baby turtles emerge. Watching hundreds of hatchlings struggle across a sandy beach before plunging into the ocean must be one of earth’s cutest phenomena and is something that we want to see continue into the future.
• According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the population of mature nesting females has declined by over eighty per cent over the last three generations of hawksbills and the species has now been listed as critically endangered.