TABUK: In a milestone for marine conservation, the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve has launched a live satellite-tracking program for hawksbill and green turtles, including the first known tagging of a pre-nesting, egg-carrying green turtle in the Red Sea.
This data will fill a critical regional knowledge gap and drive unified, cross-border conservation strategies for these globally endangered species, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday.
The team is led by the reserve’s senior marine ecologist Ahmed Mohammed and Hector Barrios-Garrido, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology’s Beacon Development’s senior marine megafauna specialist.
The two experts recently captured and tagged three critically endangered hawksbill turtles and seven green turtles, the SPA reported.
The tags transmit real-time movement data, identifying foraging grounds, migratory corridors, and, most crucially, the nesting site of the egg-carrying green turtle, ensuring proper protection and management.
The program continues the reserve’s long-term commitment to marine conservation, expanding its turtle nest-monitoring and protection efforts in place since 2023, the SPA added.
The reserve protects 4,000 sq. km of Red Sea waters — 1.8 percent of the Kingdom’s marine area — and a 170 km coastline, the longest managed by a single entity in the Kingdom. Linking Neom and Red Sea Global, it forms an 800 km corridor of protected Red Sea coastline.
It is a refuge for five of the world’s seven turtle species and a breeding ground for green and hawksbill turtles. Ranger teams monitor turtle activity on land and at sea, protecting nesting sites critical to natal homing, the instinct that drives turtles to return to the beaches where they were born.
Andrew Zaloumis, CEO of the reserve, said: “Critically endangered hawksbill turtles face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild within our lifetime.
“With fewer than 200 breeding-age females remaining in the Red Sea, their survival depends on closing vital knowledge gaps to enable effective conservation.”
He added: “Hawksbill turtles hatching on the reserve’s protected beaches range across 438,000 sq. km of open sea bordered by eight MENA (Middle East North Africa) countries, returning some three decades later to the same sandy beach to lay their eggs.
“Our satellite tagging and tracking program is a game-changer, providing real-time data to identify their critical staging, foraging, and rookery areas across the Red Sea.
“This data will support national and regional efforts to drive a unified, ecosystem-wide turtle conservation management plan.”
The reserve’s turtle conservation program supports Saudi Arabia’s commitments under the UN Environment Programme’s Convention on Migratory Species and the Indian Ocean’s South-East Asian Marine Turtle Memorandum of Understanding.
Mohammed said: “These state-of-the-art, lightweight tags operate for at least 12 months, providing continuous data for detailed analysis of seasonal patterns and developmental habitats, contributing valuable insights to regional and global sea turtle research.
“Additionally, depth sensors reveal seagrass meadows, essential foraging grounds for green turtles and critical blue carbon sinks.”
Despite the recent global reclassification of green turtles by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, they are still considered vulnerable and conservation-dependent regionally.
All five marine turtle species in the Red Sea are listed under the Convention on Migratory Species, which Saudi Arabia joined in 1979.
