Baby Leatherback Sea Turtles Thriving due to COVID-19 Beach Restrictions
By Laura Geggel | Associate Editor

LIVE SCIENCE – April 21, 2020 | Baby leatherback sea turtles are doing better than they have in years, now that many humans are opting (or being ordered) to stay off beaches due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A newly hatched leatherback sea turtle makes its way into a sea for the first time at a beach in Phang-nga district, Thailand. Photograph: Reuters

On one beach in Thailand, for instance, environmentalists have found 11 leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) nests since November, the largest number of nests found there in the past two decades, according to The Guardian.

Likewise, on Florida’s 9.5-mile-long (15 kilometers) Juno Beach, marine life researchers found 76 leatherback sea turtle nests, a significant increase compared with the number of nests at this time last year, The Guardian reported.