As human populations have increased in the last few decades, turtle population numbers have dropped drastically, and some may soon become extinct. People have depended on the sea turtles for centuries, using the meat and eggs for food, skin for leather, and the beautiful scutes of the hawksbill for tortoiseshell jewelry. But turtles have been overhunted for these reasons as well as the manufacturing of face cream, soaps, cosmetics, and tourist items. Females are easy to catch when they return to the beaches to lay eggs. They also leave a tractor-like trail from their nests for poachers to follow and find the buried eggs.
People compete with turtles for the beaches on which the animals lay their eggs.
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.