Humans touching turtles
with their bare hands is definitely not the cause of the growths and absolutely not the reason it is illegal to touch green sea turtles (it is
not illegal to
touch green sea turtles).
In the USA it is illegal to
harass green sea turtles due to their status as threatened species (Hawaii) and endangered species (Florida). Touching is not necessarily harassing.
With regards to removing fishing line &/or hooks that are causing permanent damage to turtles here in Hawaii, the marine enforcement people have gone so far as to say that direct action by individuals is a better process than just observing and reporting to authorities.
With that recommendation in mind I have held a medium sized green sea turtle down on the sandy bottom and with the help of my paying guest removed numerous wraps of fishing line from it's shoulder. This was a resident turtle at Ulua Reef that I had been watching for many months and it had recently quit moving the limb in a normal way. Shortly after that day I saw it swimming normally again, although it kept a wary eye on me! My paying guest thought it was the most rewarding dive of her life, even though we sucked our tanks up quickly struggling with the animal.
I have also participated in organized turtle rescues with Deep Ecology on the North Shore of Oahu, where the local NOAA turtle guy (George Balazs) was invited but could not join us (other times George did participate). So a boatload of tourists, locals and dive shop employees went out to various injured turtle sighting locations and often removed the turtle via said boat to be picked up later by George.
Sometimes the offending line &/or hooks are just removed and the turtles are released on the spot. Other times surgery is required and after recovery the turtle is released back in the location it was caught. Sometimes the reason for rescue is growths covering eyes or mouth, and if no internal growths are detected the external growths are removed and the turtle similarly released.
For what it's worth your questions could have been answered by yahoo-ing or googel-ing
Hawaiian green sea turtle. With yahoo search, the first hit is
The Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle page at turtle.org. In the first section (Current Status), there is a link to a page on the most severe threats; fibropapilloma tumors and degradation of foraging habitat.
Unfortunately, the linked page is not very informative but at least you have the necessary words for your second search; I yahoo-ed
fibropapilloma tumor george balazs.
The first hit is the aforementioned hard to decipher linked page, but the second and third hits are articles from Dive Training and the Honolulu Advertiser that bring readers as up to date as web searching makes possible with regards to turtle tumors!
Please Heed This Warning:
Turtles are strong swimming wild animals and when I grab a turtle for rescue I know I could easily suffer permanent damage, including the possibility of losing fingers!
