Turtles are, however, highly migratory with nesting beaches usually located a long way from the feeding grounds. The first extensive aerial census of sea turtles in Kenya was carried out in 1994 and revealed a population of just 1,000 to 2,000 reptiles. Both resident and visiting turtles are increasingly under threat. Another threat is posed by fishing trawlers and drift nets which accidentally catch sea turtles and drown them in fishing gear. Worldwide, an estimated 155,000 turtles die every year in trawlers' shrimp nets.
Sea turtles are the earth's oldest living vertebrate animals.
They existed 150 million years ago, even before the dinosaur. These giant reptiles have a life span of 50 to 100 years. This makes them important environmental indicators of long-term marine changes. Sea turtles are protected by Kenyan Law, but its enforcement has been so wanting, particularly in the protection of nesting beaches, that their survival cannot be taken for granted. When local environmentalists recognised the serious danger to the reptile they acted to check and reverse the trend.