Sea turtles are known to occupy a series of different habitats in their lifetime which are broadly categorized into the terrestrial habitat of the nesting females and the pelagic and oceanic habitat of the immediate post-hatchling phase. However, the terrestrial habitat of the nesting females plays a very important role in the life cycle of the sea turtles as this is where the next generation is hatched. Female sea turtles need to come onto land to lay eggs for which they must have access to suitable beaches (Hendrickson 1982; Plotkin 2010; Behera et al. 2013).

Gahirmatha arribada beach are most dynamic and eroding at a faster rate over the years from 2008-09 to 2010-11, especially during the turtles breeding seasons. Impact of armouring cement tetrapod on olive ridley sea turtle nesting beach at Gahirmatha rookery of Odisha coast has also been reported in this study. This study documented the area of nesting beach has reduced from 0.07 km2to 0.06 km2.

Like my talk, this article falls into two parts – firstly how my involvement with sea turtles began and the Australian conservation successes which led from it, and secondly my involvement in olive ridleys in India and the huge upsurge in interest and work on sea turtles in India that has resulted. My involvement with sea turtles started in December 1963.

The west coast of Galathea Bay, Great Nicobar Island, was previously a significant nesting site for leatherback turtles despite pressure from anthropogenic activities and natural predators. The nesting population has the potential to recover from disturbance resulting from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, as human all settlements have gone and the region is, therefore, free of anthropogenic predation and light pollution which might affect nesting turtles. However, there is still predation of turtle nests by Nicobari pigs.

The ecology and reproductive biology of the hawksbill turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata were studied in Kish Island, Persian Gulf. The studied parameters include: environmental factors such as air temperature and humidity, soil types in different habitats during the breeding season; parameters related to the females' body and hatchlings biometrics i.e. weight, curved carapace length (CCL), straight carapace length (SCL), curved carapace width (CCW) and straight carapace width (SCW); and parameters related to reproductive biology, i.e.

In India, the Gahirmatha coast is among the most important nesting grounds of olive ridley turtles, Lepidochelys olivacea. The coastal waters of Odisha are also subjected to heavy commercial fishing activities, leading to turtle-fisheries conflicts. This study was carried out to quantify the effects of fishing on breeding turtles. Data on stranded, dead turtles were collected during three breeding seasons (2007–08, 2008–09 and 2009–10) between November and April along a 35 km stretch. A total of 13,443 dead olive ridleys were counted (2008–09: n=9502, 2007–08: n=2754, 2009–10: n=1187).

Current study emphasizes on recent very severe cyclonic storm Phailin of category -5 hurricane has caused significant morphologic changes in Olive Ridley sea turtle nesting ground in estuarine region of Rushikulya, east coast of India. In the present study, we have used Remote Sensing and GIS tools for investigating and quantifying the morphologic changes especially the sand spit of the study domain. Sequential satellite data (Geoeye & Landsat-8) pertaining to the period 2003 to 2014 were used in the current study.

In the past two decades, sea turtle mortality has increased due to a variety of anthropogenic activities along the Nagapattinam and Chennai coast region in Tamil Nadu, South India. Weekly field surveys were conducted over an eight-month period from December 2013 to July 2014 to monitor the mortality of turtles in these coastal areas, revealing a notable disruption in the nesting activity of the turtles during January–March; the worst affected were mature individuals.

Stomach contents of olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) occurring along the Gahirmatha coast of Odisha, India have been studied between October 2008 and May 2010. We obtained 76 stomach contents from olive ridley turtles that were stranded freshly, of which 12 were males and 64 were females. Among food items, molluscs dominated with 34.5 % in volume while crustaceans were next in order of volume (27.6 %). Occurrence of fish and other invertebrate and algae fragments though were less in amount have been noted almost in all specimens.