Natural environment has undergone rapid transformations, primarily attributed to human actions that threaten ecosystems' balance. Understanding the relationship between humans and nature is essential to generate effective strategies for sustainably using resources. In this study, we analyzed the environmental perception and knowledge about the biology of sea turtles through 120 informal interviews with visitors at beaches on the north-central coast of Rio de Janeiro state. Residents noticed garbage more often than tourists, as did women and younger individuals. The perception of initiatives necessary to increase the preservation of the beaches was higher for people with higher education. In general, there were no differences in biological knowledge about sea turtles between residents, tourists and people who work or study at the cities. The results point to the need for oceanic education strategies that can help raise environmental awareness through long-term conservation programs.

The south-western region of the Atlantic Ocean has feeding and nesting areas for the five species of sea turtles registered in Brazil, which are in different degrees of extinction threat, mainly due to anthropogenic factors. Fishing and the ingestion of solid waste, were identified as causing stranding and the mortality of sea turtles. In this work, data from the monitoring of beaches in the Municipalities of Macaé and Rio das Ostras, important oil zone in Brazil, in the north-central region of the State of Rio de Janeiro, were used in order to analyse the effects of seasonality on the sea turtle stranding. The monitoring was carried out daily from September 2017 to June 2019, in a study area covering 23.8 km long beach. Stranding data were obtained from active (n = 126) and passive (n = 66) monitoring of beaches and included the records of Chelonia mydas (n = 151), Caretta caretta (n = 23), Lepidochelys olivacea (n = 14), Dermochelys coriacea (n = 2) and Eretmochelys imbricata (n = 1). The largest stranding record occurred in the summer (n = 61) and spring (n = 60), a period compatible with the reproductive season of the species. The results obtained in this study emphasise the importance of the analysis of strandings of sea turtles, which provide relevant data on the biology of the group, the intra and interspecific dynamics and the state of conservation of these animals.

The high biological productivity presented along the Brazilian coast guarantees availability of resources and also protects a diverse community of marine tetrapods. Physical and biological factors can influence in these animal mortality rates and the analysis of stranding patterns helps to comprehend the external threats, as anthropic. We analysed the effects of seasonality in richness and abundance of marine tetrapods stranded between 2016 and 2020 in the Paraty Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In total, 588 strandings were recorded, Chelonia mydas as being the species with more abundance, followed by Sula leucogaster and Sotalia guianensis. Among the 28 species, birds richness were the highest, followed by marine mammals and reptiles. There was no significant difference in the numbers of stranding records throughout the different seasons. There was more similarity in the assemblies between spring and summer. Birds and reptiles had stranding records distributed mostly in winter and spring, with the majority of marine mammals stranding being concentrated during the spring season. The strandings patterns of marine tetrapods throughout a temporal sequence in the Paraty Bay generated data that can provide animal behavior understandings and population distributions of marine tetrapods and supplement data for management plans and conservation.