Photo Credit: Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort & Spa
For 43 years, the green sea turtle carried one of conservation's heaviest labels: endangered. Poaching gutted nesting populations, and coastal development claimed the beaches where females returned to lay eggs.
Last October, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reclassified the species globally from endangered to least concern, citing a roughly 28 percent population increase since the 1970s. It marked the first time a sea turtle species received that level of recovery on the IUCN Red List since green turtles were first listed in 1982.
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