The Biggest Turtle in the World is About to Die
You are at a beach somewhere in Florida, when suddenly a giant 2000 pound turtle beaches on the sand and starts sliding on its fins towards you. You take a look at the giant, you see Seven long ridges running down its shell and white dots covering its face, and a pink spot on its chin. You also see part of a fishing net attached to one of its flippers. You move and it walks past you, to lay its eggs. People start crowding around you and you hear someone shout “Whoa its a Leatherback Turtle!” A few biologists come later and fence off the area the turtle laid its eggs. They tell you that this was a leatherback turtle which is part of a species that is critically endangered. You return home, do some research and find out that this turtle is indeed part of an endangered species. You keep clicking through webpages for about ten minutes, then sit back calmly in your chair, your papaya smoothie sitting in your lap, almost half empty. Thoughts of the Leatherback Turtle circle through your mind as you begin to put two and two together. You then begin to ask yourself some questions. How did this happen? What is being done to help? And, perhaps more importantly, what can you do?
The leatherback turtle’s scientific name is Dermochelys coriacea. It is a very large turtle. In fact, it is the largest turtle on earth and is the 4th largest reptile. It usually grows up to 7 feet long and can weigh up to 2000 pounds! It has also been observed diving down to minus 5000 feet below sea level. The turtle mostly feeds on soft animals, such as jellyfish due to its fragile jaws. Their shells are different than other sea turtles, It has a leathery texture and is not a hard shell. It also has 7 long ridges along its shell, and is sometimes covered in white spots. They live in all oceans except the Arctic and Southern oceans. In fact, Leatherbacks have the largest worldwide distribution of all other reptilians, and perhaps even of every backboned animal. Like other sea turtles, the leatherback lays its eggs on the beach. Their hatchlings hatch about 5-6 months later and they crawl into the ocean. The chance that a baby leatherback turtle would grow into an adult is 1 in 1000, since they are so small and are always on their own. But the leatherback may not be around for long. It can be found in both the Atlantic and Pacific ocean. Those found in the Pacific are usually engaged in a migratory pattern between Indonesia and California. But wherever it goes, it is always being killed. The turtle is most often killed through bycatch, or the accidental fishing of the turtles by them getting caught in nets or hooks accidentally catching them. So far, numerous companies are trying to help save the turtles including the World Wildlife Foundation, which is trying to not only convince fisheries to use different types of hooks or nets but also organizing the Smart Gear international competition, founded to find solutions to bycatch. The World Wildlife foundation as well as many other organizations, all use satellite devices to track the Leatherback Turtles’ movements in order to save them from the harmful fisheries and bycatch. They also try to establish MPAs, also known as marine protected areas. These ensure that the turtles have a safe place to nest, feed and migrate from. These conservation efforts have not been successful at all. The amount of leatherback turtles laying eggs has declined by approximately 90 percent, so it is easily see that this is a very big problem and it needs to be fixed. The World Wildlife Foundation will need to continue convincing fisheries and fishermen to use specific hooks and nets. However, this will definitely not do. Other solutions need to be found. There are numerous captive breeding programs but this is very timely, and is still not enough. This is why the WWF has started the Smart Gear challenge. The Smart Gear Challenge is an international competitions where anyone can propose their idea on how to save the Leatherback Turtles and thousands of other organisms by creating solutions and inventions to bycatch. This way the turtles would no longer be in as much danger. Indeed, more programs like this need to be formed in order to prevent endangerment of any species such as the leatherback turtle. The Leatherback Turtle is crucial to the environment. Since it eats large quantities of jellyfish it keeps the jellyfish populations in check. Since jellyfish consume large amounts of fish larvae, the Leatherback Turtle also helps in the recovery of declining fish populations. The Leatherback turtle also provides income to small coastal towns from ecotourism, because who wouldn't want to see one of them. Since it has weak jaws it also couldn't harm a human. The turtle is a beautiful animal,which has done nothing wrong. It’s species has survived for over 100 million years, it can’t die now. The Leatherback is the largest turtle in the world, it’s the crusader of the seas. The Leatherback Turtle has never harmed humans, so It can be found all across the globe The Leatherback Turtle is a truly great animal. |