Red Listing

As the Red List Authority for marine turtles, one of the MTSG’s primary responsibilities is the completion of Red List Assessments for each of the seven marine turtle species. These exhaustive status reviews draw on the group’s collective expertise and available data to assess the risk of extinction of each species using categories and criteria developed by the IUCN Red List Program.

Internally, this process is overseen by the MTSG Red List Focal Point, Dr. Bryan Wallace, who leads an Assessment Steering Committee (ASC) that guides the completion of all assessments.

The MTSG’s Assessment Process

Each Red List Assessment undergoes many stages of review and revision before inclusion in the official IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Within the MTSG, each species assessment is assigned to an assessor, or assessors, who draft(s) the assessment using the categories and criteria developed by IUCN. The draft assessment is then submitted to the MTSG’s Red List Focal Point, who coordinates a preliminary review of the draft by the ASC and by select MTSG members, as needed. The draft then undergoes preliminary revision and is re-submitted to the ASC for approval prior to sending to the entire MTSG membership. At this stage, the draft is then made available to all MTSG members during a specified member review and comment period. All comments are considered by the assessor(s) and the ASC, and revisions are made to the draft as deemed necessary. Ultimately, a final draft is submitted back to the ASC for approval, and when approved, the MTSG Red List Focal Point submits the assessment to the IUCN Species Program for final review and inclusion in the IUCN Red List. For more information on IUCN’s process for Red List Assessments, visit the Red List Program website.

You can find the current global and subpopulation Red List Assessments for each of the sea turtle species here.