Bright lights from hotels and highways attract both hatchlings and adult females away from the ocean, and traffic on the beach leaves tire tracks for hatchlings to fall into and crushes buried nests. Sometimes shrimpers and other fishermen accidentally catch and drown turtles in their nets. It is not clear if sea turtles can survive under human pressures. Protecting them is difficult when so little is actually known about their habits. Current research will tell more about how the animals spend their time at sea and on land.
Laws are also important.
These special boxes allow turtles to escape from shrimp nets by using a hatch without releasing significant numbers of shrimp from the nets. People are also helping hatchlings by marking or moving nests for safety. Habitats and nesting beaches may be protected, and inhabited beaches can be made safer by dimming lights during breeding and nesting periods. Protective measures like these may help the world's sea turtles survive in the future.