Historical trade of tortoiseshell reveals origins of modern wildlife trafficking networks

New research from the Monterey Bay Aquarium finds that historical tortoiseshell trade routes may have established the groundwork for modern illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The study published today in the journal Science Advances, “The historical development of complex global trafficking networks for marine wildlife,” analyzes 150 years of tortoiseshell trade records and derives several realistic harvest models to explore the trade of endangered hawksbill sea turtles.