FSU marine biologist advances sea turtle conservation strategies by locating highest risk areas for boat strikes

Kendall Cooper

Thu, 10/23/25
Mariana Fuentes
Mariana Fuentes, FSU Professor of Oceanography and Environmental science and the study's principal investigator (Devin Bittner/FSU College of Arts and Sciences)

A 糖心vlog marine biologist is enhancing conservation efforts by identifying the areas on the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts that expose protected marine turtles to the highest risk of being struck by vessels.

Professor of Oceanography and Environmental Science Mariana Fuentes discovered that one quarter of all stranded turtles found in the Gulf and western Atlantic Ocean are vessel-strike victims. The study findings will better inform marine turtle conservation and management for the four protected species that regularly nest and forage in the regions: loggerhead, green, Kemp鈥檚 ridley, and leatherback turtles.

鈥淚鈥檓 inspired by the opportunity to conduct research that directly informs conservation strategies and evidence-based policy for threatened species, which is the mission of my lab, the ,鈥 said Fuentes, the study鈥檚 principal investigator. 鈥淏y identifying regions where vessel strikes are a major threat, this work guides targeted mitigation efforts.鈥

These findings were published in September in the journal .

Using data collected from 2010 to 2022, researchers found that most vessel-strike injuries happen to green turtles in Florida and Texas, as well as loggerhead turtles in Florida. Kemp鈥檚 ridley turtles are the world鈥檚 smallest and scientists predominantly observed these turtles with vessel-strike injuries in Florida, but clusters of stranding were also seen in Virginia, Georgia and Mississippi. The most vessel-struck leatherback turtles, the largest of the world鈥檚 sea turtles and a highly migratory species, were found stranded primarily in Massachusetts.

This new research is crucial for informing conservation efforts in these areas, allowing the stakeholders to make research-backed decisions and prioritize specific locations for future studies. Protecting sea turtles is essential not only for their persistence as a species but also for maintaining the stability and functioning of marine ecosystems.

鈥淔or example, green turtles graze on seagrass beds, maintaining a balance in the ecosystem to support a wide range of marine life,鈥 Fuentes said. 鈥淏y consuming jellyfish, leatherbacks help control their abundance, which can otherwise disrupt fish populations. Sea turtle nesting behavior also contributes to coastal ecosystems, as unhatched eggs and eggshells provide nutrients that enrich beach vegetation.鈥

Nearly all vessel-struck turtles in the study died from their injuries, challenging previous scientific speculation that most died from other causes and were struck by a vessel while floating.

Turtle graphic
Illustration of highest vessel strike risk areas and impacted turtle species (Marc Thomas/FSU College of Arts and Sciences).

One of the publication鈥檚 co-authors, Allen Foley, is a research administrator for the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI), part of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. An objective of FWRI is to identify and characterize sea turtle mortality factors, particularly human-related activities or behaviors that can harm or kill turtles such as boating, commercial fishing, polluting, dredging and developing coastal land.

鈥淒r. Fuentes has unique insights and perspectives due to her great deal of experience on a wide range of sea turtle research projects,鈥 Foley said. 鈥淰essel-strike injuries are the most commonly identified cause of death for Florida sea turtles, and I suspect this is the case elsewhere. Human activities and behaviors are often why species become threatened or endangered, and usually, the mitigation or adjustment of these activities has a great conservation benefit.鈥

While spearheading this research, Fuentes also co-authored 鈥淎 Global Sea Turtle Climate Vulnerability Assessment,鈥 published in September in . Collecting data from across the globe, this work quantified the vulnerability of sea turtles to climatic changes.

That work uncovered that turtles are most vulnerable to sea level rise and air temperature changes 鈥 heatwaves as well as cold snaps 鈥 in addition to ocean acidification and dissolved oxygen, which both occur as waters warm and absorb more carbon dioxide and less oxygen. As with Fuentes鈥 vessel-strike research, the purpose of this work is to support accurate, well-informed management decisions.

鈥淚t鈥檚 important to realize the natural world is complex and interconnected and removing any part could have far-reaching consequences,鈥 Foley said. 鈥淪ea turtles are long-term components of our natural world, and their removal would no doubt have cascading effects. While species naturally come and go, the loss of sea turtles due to human-related activities or behaviors would be tragic.鈥

Fuentes鈥 vessel strike research was funded in part by the Florida Trustee Implementation Group, part of the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment.

To learn more about Fuentes鈥 work and research conducted in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science at FSU, visit .

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