Coastal Armoring

Sea turtle nesting beaches around the world have been substantially altered by urbanization and development. Coastal areas are considered prime real estate and many of the world’s beaches have been heavily developed. Coastal property owners along beaches threatened by erosion often build armoring structures such as vertical seawalls and sloping rock revetments to help protect their land from erosion. Coastal armoring can take many forms and be constructed from wood, steel, concrete and even hundred ton 1/4-mile long bags of sand known as geotube armoring.

Coastal armoring structures on, or adjacent to, nesting beaches can prevent sea turtles from continuing their life cycles. Sea walls directly threaten sea turtles by reducing or degrading suitable nesting habitat. They block turtles from reaching the upper portion of the beach, causing turtles to nest lower on the beach where their nests are more susceptible to waves and more likely to by covered with water. In addition, studies have shown that fewer turtles emerge onto beaches with seawalls than onto non-walled, natural beaches. Those turtles that do emerge in front of seawalls often return to the water without nesting, known as a false crawl. While sea turtles naturally false crawl on all nesting beaches, the rate of false crawls is generally significantly higher in front of sea walls.