The seven unsolved mysteries described in these next articles—highlight the great unknowns about sea turtles. They provide a framework for focusing scientific progress, intellectual powers, and investment in global research, and they serve as a public relations tool to generate greater interest and financing for conserving marine turtles and their habitats.

Entanglement in Trinidad’s coastal gillnet fisheries is the largest source of mortality to leatherback sea turtles in the country, killing more turtles than all other factors combined and threatening to unravel several years of proactive conservation and management.. This strains fishers’ ability to operate economically, as nets damaged by sea turtles retain very little fish.

In July 2006, Zanzibar’s government passed bold legislation to outlaw the importation and use of plastic bags, which have noticeably polluted the marine and terrestrial environment of the archipelago in recent years.

Despite its popularity in some regions, sea turtle may cause negative health effects when consumed by humans. In Mexico, several organizations are now collaborating with public health professionals to make available information about the connection between sea turtle consumption and human health.