Turtles already have a survival rate of one in 1,000 reaching adulthood due to predators like sea birds, fish, sharks and crocodiles but rangers say tourists should be added to that list.

Louise Stone, land and sea coordinator with Mapoon Aboriginal Shire Council, on the west coast of Queensland's Cape York peninsula, said up to 70 per cent of turtle nests on some beaches had been destroyed by inconsiderate tourists.

"It's always been a problem [and] in the last couple of years it's been worse because we get more tourists," she said.

"People come out with lights to see the turtles lay their eggs and often that will disturb the mother and she may not lay because they follow the light thinking it's the moon."

Tourists are not allowed on one particular beach near Mapoon as requested by the Yupungathi people and the survival rate for turtles there is significantly higher, according to Ms Stone.

"[That] beach is not a problem at all because the beach is closed but on the other beaches, tourists go there and they don't realise what the effect is," she said.

Apudthama rangers from the Northern Peninsula Regional Council are making sure sea turtles are not interrupted during nesting season. ( Supplied: Kerry Trapnell )

Motorbikes, four-wheel-drive and quad bike vehicles have also been sighted crushing turtle nests.

"Generally, tourists going up and down the beaches in four-wheel-drives, not sticking to the low or high water mark so they run over nests — they don't even know they are there," Ms Stone said.

"On one beach, the destruction is pretty big; it's about 60 or 70 per cent destruction of nests."

Ranger groups using cages and monitoring to save baby turtles

Further south, on the beaches of Pormpuraaw in the Gulf of Carpentaria, there are less tourists and almost no incidents of vehicles crushing nests.

But there are still high turtle attrition rates that local ranger groups are trying to improve.

Pormpuraaw Rangers are using aluminium cages to cover and protect turtle nests ( Supplied: Lyndal Scobel )

Robbie Morris, environmental manager with Pormpuraaw Aboriginal Shire Council, said Indigenous rangers were applying monitoring and pest abatement on all western Cape York beaches.

"On our main beach, we've introduced a few threat mitigation measures; we've been using aluminium cages to actually put over the turtle nests," he said.

"Our hatchling success rate was about 400 per cent higher than the 14-year nesting season. That's about 12,000 hatchlings getting back into the water."

Mr Morris said it had become a full-time job to keep natural predators away from the vulnerable Olive Ridley sea turtles.

"Just the presence of the guys on the beach every day and some night patrols to try and target the big boars that come onto the beach at night is making a great deal of difference," he said.

Common sense can help save turtles

Ms Stone said because of ranger assistance, both flat back and Olive Ridley turtles nests were experiencing at 70 per cent rate of producing hatchlings, but it could be higher if visitors were more considerate.

"Often there's a track on the vegetation line so [people] should drive up there rather than on the beach," she said.

"And look at the signs that are around, obey them and have a bit of respect."