Green turtles swim off the Endangered list

Decades of beach protection turned the tide: monitoring at Tortuguero, Costa Rica — the Atlantic's largest green turtle rookery — documents a sustained nesting increase since surveys began in 1971, and Florida's state program tracks similar long-term gains on its east coast. In October 2025 the IUCN reclassified the green turtle from Endangered to Least Concern, crediting conservation with lifting the global population roughly 28% over five decades.

Green turtles just swam off the Endangered list: IUCN's 2025 Red List reclassified them as Least Concern after the global population rose ~28% since the 1970s.

The receipts

• Smithsonian Magazine: After Decades of Decline, Some Good News Is Here for Green Sea Turtles
• Biological Conservation (Elsevier): Long-term conservation efforts contribute to positive green turtle Chelonia mydas nesting trend at Tortuguero, Costa Rica
• Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: Green Turtle Nesting in Florida