Editor's Note: An Unfinished Symphony
By Roderic B. Mast
A hatchling green turtle swims frantically toward the outer reef after emerging on Australia’s Heron Island amid a tropical storm. Hundreds of birds circle overhead, looking for a meal. © Hannah Le Leu
Life is everywhere on Earth—from the poles to the tropics, from the abyssal depths to the edges of the atmosphere—yet there are sites where biodiversity is concentrated, rich in endemic species, and where human threats are severe. These are called hotspots. Early in my conservation career, I had the good fortune to be part of a team of global experts tasked with setting priorities for addressing the biodiversity crisis, and, led by iconic experts like Norman Myers, Russell Mittermeier, and E. O. Wilson, we committed to the impossible job of compiling data on all life—from plants to pigeons and everything in between. This enormous team mapped the data, created a framework for measuring human impacts, and ultimately produced a list of rainforest hotspots that occupy a tiny fraction of Earth’s land surface (2.5 percent) in which the lion’s share of Earth’s species are found (more than 40 percent), and most of the species at high risk (greater than 70 percent). Today, governments and organizations of all types use the hotspots framework to direct their investments in rainforest conservation to ensure the biggest bang for the buck.
During those years, I was also the “sea turtle guy” at a nonprofit that supported many conservation projects. Dozens of proposals crossed my desk, and I found myself constantly frustrated by not knowing the ‘sea turtle hotspots’—the places that are home to the species and populations where threats are most severe and conservation needs most urgent. The tools at our disposal to evaluate such priorities at the time were blunt, at best. Thus, in 2003, my team and I began to lead efforts by the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group (MTSG) and the SWOT Program to compile biogeographical data on all sea turtles, define subpopulations, and develop a platform for global priority setting. Now, more than 20 years later, the Atlas of Global Sea Turtle Status (SWOT Report, vol. 20, 2025) aspires to be the tool for that job and, like biodiversity hotspots, to serve as a roadmap for where and how the world can invest to ensure the biggest impact in preventing sea turtle extinctions.
As we reflect on the journey that has led us here, one thing stands out above all as a key to success: the collective, non-competitive, collaborative efforts of a multitude of people in our sea turtle community (see “Authors of a Revolution”). The love of sea turtles is a powerful force that drives us to put our passion, training, and wisdom to work toward ensuring a safe future for the animals we love. Whether we contribute a single data point from a remote beach, monitor a lone satellite track trailing across the wide Pacific, or spend hours in front of a laptop crunching data, coding a GIS platform, or tweaking the edge of an RMU, we all step up for the things we love.
This effort is a perpetual work in progress—an unfinished symphony, both imperfect and interminable—that will only improve over time and through trial, error, and adaptation. But it is so much better than nothing. Deep thanks and congratulations to the ones who got us here, to those who came before us, and to those in whose hands the future of sea turtles and their habitats lie.
This article originally appeared in SWOT Report, vol. 20 (2025). Download this article as a PDF.