New satellite tracking of hawksbill turtles has revealed the critically endangered species use the Coral Sea as a highway to travel from Papua New Guinea to the Great Barrier Reef.This exacerbates concerns over the Australian government’s draft plan to reduce the Coral Sea’s protected areas by 50 per cent, WWF said. The WWF stated that the findings were “alarming”.Hawksbills turtle numbers were depleted by almost 90 per cent over 100 years due to tortoiseshell trade, prior to a worldwide ban on the activity in 1977. The species never managed to make a recovery.The satellite trackers were attached to 10 hawksbills between December 2017 and January 2018 as part of a research expedition in Papua New Guinea’s Conflict Islands, conducted by WWF Australia, the University of the Sunshine Coast and the Conflict Island Conservation Initiative. Credit: WWF Australia via Storyful