Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/sea-turtle-app/

Hawksbill turtles are being hunted to extinction.

Since the pre-dynastic period of Egypt to the great era of ancient Greece and Rome, the lovely shells of hawksbill turtles were used to make exotic tableware, combs, bracelets, and other jewelry.

Yet, it was in the 17th century up to the 20th century that its popularity reached its peak with data showing more than 9 million hawksbill turtles having been killed for their shells between 1884 and 1992.

Now, there are only fewer than 25,000 female hawksbill turtles left in the world.

“It was plastic before plastic was invented because it’s so malleable,” said Brad Nahill, co-founder and president of turtle conservation group SEE Turtles and a National Geographic Explorer.

Tortoiseshells Come from Critically Endangered Hawksbill Turtles, Not Tortoises

The illegal sale of tortoiseshell continues largely in Southeast Asia and Central America, involving at least 40 countries, with vacationers who love to buy souvenirs and trinkets making up the highest percentage of the black market sales.

Ironically, these tortoiseshell products do not even come from tortoises. They are the shells of hawksbill turtles, which are among the marine turtles that are internationally banned from trading since 1977 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

And yet China remains a top consumer of tortoiseshells, which the country has been obtaining illegally from Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In Japan, women continue to follow a 300-year-old tradition of wearing tortoiseshell combs along with their wedding costumes.

Today, according to NOAA Fisheries, in addition to the illegal tortoiseshell trade, hawksbill turtles are threatened by the following:

• Bycatch in fishing gear
• Direct harvest of turtles and eggs
• Loss and degradation of nesting and foraging habitat
• Predation of eggs and hatchlings
• Vessel strikes
• Ocean pollution/marine debris
• Climate change

Saving Hawksbill Turtles through the Free SEE Shell turtle App

Nahill and his team at SEE Turtles are undaunted by the many challenges facing them in their effort to save hawksbill turtles from extinction. Their focus is the illegal trade of tortoiseshell which is the primary threat to the hawksbill turtle population.

With partners from the Smithsonian OCIO Data Science Lab, they have designed an app using machine learning to identify real and fake tortoiseshells.

They call this free app, SEE Shell, which can distinguish with 94% accuracy a tortoiseshell product that was made from the shell of a hawksbill turtle or resin. This way, the app user can avoid buying a genuine tortoiseshell product and thereby contribute to the fight against the black market. Users can even report illegal sellers and traders to authorities upon determining that these people are selling banned tortoiseshells.

SEE Turtles is planning to market the free app through social media and collaborations with other conservation groups.

“Even if we get a few hundred travelers actively using it and collecting data and avoiding buying real tortoiseshell, it’s a great thing,” said Nahill.

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Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog