Marine Life About Sea Turtles
“There are only seven sea turtle species in the world and only one is listed as threatened” (Global Sea Turtle Network). For over one hundred and ten years sea turtles have been swimming in the seven seas, even though sea turtles survived natural predators, climate change, and the extinction of dinosaurs. Sea turtles face more danger than they did long ago, due to more technology, fishermen finding new places where catching fish is promising, oil spills, and finding out that certain sea turtle parts are very valuable. More and more sea turtles are being killed, black marketed, or caught in fishing nets. Society needs to do more on beaches, in the oceans and in local communities to help the sea turtles species from being extinct.
The Seven sea turtle species are: “Leather back sea turtle; the largest of the sea turtles, their shell going from fifty-two to seventy inches long, they can weigh up to a ton and nest in tropical beaches, Green sea turtle mostly found on the Gulf of Mexico and west coast weighting one hundred and fifty to four hundred and forty pounds their shell being thirty-two to forty- eight inches long. Largest Green sea turtle on record was five feet long weighting eight hundred and seventy-one, Kemp Ridley sea turtle shell is twenty –four to thirty inches nesting in the Gulf of Mexico; they are the smallest of all sea turtles, Olive Ridley sea turtle shares the same size as the Kemp Ridley most abundant sea turtle; that ranges over the tropical pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans, Flat back sea turtle they only nest in Australian beaches larger that the two Ridleys considered the most mysterious of sea turtles; little is known about what they eat or where they migrate to after nest...
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Nolan, Jennifer R. "Sea Turtles, a Call for Conservation." Home. Sailors for the Sea, Oct. 2013. Web. 14 May 2014.
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Ripple, Jeff. Sea Turtles. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur, 1996. Print.
"SEATURTLE.ORG - Global Sea Turtle Network." SEATURTLE.ORG. Sea Turtle, n.d. Web. 14 May 2014.
Spotila, James R. Sea Turtles: A Complete Guide to Their Biology, Behavior, and Conservation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2004. Print.
Throughout the animal kingdom, adaptations take place continuously and even the smallest of changes can leave a significant impact. Examples can be seen within any plant or animal. One example would include sea turtles, specifically, the Loggerhead Turtles. These turtles are native to the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans as well as the Mediterranean Sea (Deurmit L 2007). They thrive in either temperate or tropical climates and can live in a myriad of biomes (Deurmit L 2007). These biomes include the pelagic, reef, coastal, and brackish water (Deurmit L 2007). Loggerhead turtles are omnivores and can eat anything from insects to aquatic crustaceans, to macro algae (Deurmit L 2007). According to Deurmit (2007) Caretta caretta is classified into Animalia Kingdom, Chordata Phylum, Vertebrata Subphylum, Reptilian Class, Testudines’ Order,
The efforts taking place through different conservation organizations and the State of Florida are making a mixed impact on the survival of Manatees and Sea Turtles. The decline in manatee population has decreased, but due to low reproduction rates, more needs to be done to avoid extinction. The sea turtle outlook is more species specific. Some species of turtle are seeing stabilization in population, while others are not. The State of Florida has a large array of custom license tags that support the conservation efforts taking place within the State. The proceeds go to benefit the local marine life in Florida. With financial resources, state and local cooperation, and through constant research and observation, we are able to learn more about both of these gentle animals. With human awareness of those living in Florida, these two animals will survive
The poem Mark O’Connor wrote “Turtles Hatching” at a time in his life when was closely studying nature.
Jefferson, T. A, M. A. Webber, and R. L. Pitman. (2008). Marine Mammals of the World, A Comprehensive Guide to their Identification. Amsterdam, Elsevier. p. 241-244.
For years poachers have hunted these animals and slaughtered them in order to obtain there amazing water resistant coats. By the 1900’s there was a treaty signed to protect all of the sea otters, and even after Japan withdrew from the treaty Canada and the United States still kept it in effect. Even after the poaching stopped the pollution continued. Sea otters find themselves submerged in the giant oil spills that the tankers cause. When oil gets into their fur is causes it to no longer be water resistant, therefore most sea otters die because they freeze to death. If they are in the warmer parts of the world, like California then the oil causes death from its toxins when the otters are trying to clean themselves. Oil spills and the garbage in the water are causing tons of marine deaths each year.
Loggerhead turtles are becoming endangered more and more often. Not many people understand the dangers that these turtles are in, especially when the females are nesting. Nesting takes an important role in the lives of these turtles and is an amazing process that occurs during the season. Unfortunately, many factors disturb the process of these hatching eggs. This paper explains these factors in depth to educate the audience about the dangers involved in loggerhead nesting. Light pollution, natural disasters, and predators are described and explained as to why they affect the process of nesting. Many organizations are trying to share their knowledge on these loggerhead-nesting dangers with people and are trying to help keep the loggerheads alive.
Pickrell, John. “Ichthyosaur’s Turtle Supper Causes Extinction Debate”. National Geographic News.com 5 August 2003. 22 March 2004.
The green sea turtles have been taken out of the Atlantic Ocean for several years, so now they are an endangered species. Today, the green sea turtles population is growing and in the Florida Refuge they counted up to over 12,000 turtle nests. It is shocking to see how much the refuges care about the green sea turtles. They have been looking out for the turtles for 35 years. It was interesting to find out that these green sea turtles live for a really long time. It takes the turtles 25 years just to mature. This article caught my eye because I love science and animals. Knowing that people are taking care of what used to be endangered animals really means a lot to me. I hate seeing animals hurt or struggling to survive. Because of the refuges
Perrin, William, Bernd Wursig, and J. Thewissen. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press, 2008. 787. Print.
Corals provide shelter for nearly one quarter of all known marine species. The reefs are home to over 4000 species of fish, 700 species of coral, and thousands of other forms of plant and animal life. Living coral reefs are the foundation of marine life, and this also means that they are essential for human life, but all over the world they are dead or dying because people are destroying them at a very fast rate. Already 10% have been lost, and there are predictions that 705 of all corals on the planet will be destroyed in 20 to 40 years unless people stop doing what they are doing now – i.e., pollution, sewage, erosion, cyanide fishing, bad tourism.
Leatherback, hawksbill, and loggerhead are sea turtles which are any of two families Cheloniidae and Dermochelyidae defined by feet modified into paddles for swimming. Sea turtles, as the name implies, live in the sea; however, they swim to land to lay there eggs. When an egg hatches the baby turtle waddles across the sand to the sea where it will spend almost all of its life.
Loggerhead Sea Turtles have many important benefits and attributions not only to the ocean but to humans as well. Since Loggerheads transport nutrients from oceans to beaches through their migrations and nesting they increase the rate of nutrient recycling in benthic, ocean bottom, ecosystems (Wilson et al. 2010). They constantly will be maintaining the coral reef ecosystem as well.
These basking rocks, or even floating cork for younger turtles, are very important, they have to have a place to bask and get out of the water. Yet if you decide to keep it outside be sure to provide a place to bask, plenty of water, filters, and a covering so other predators can not harm or eat your turtle. Equipment will be different for indoors or outdoors. If you keep your turtle indoors be sure that it can occasionally get fresh air and sun light, but do not keep an aquarium next to a window! Also, make sure your aquarium or pond is clean, this is extremely important to maintain good health for the turtle and provides them with a clean habitat.
Did you know that more than 90 percent of all organisms that have ever lived on Earth are extinct? According to Pandey, the author of Humans Pushing Marine Life toward ‘Major Extinction’, nearly 10,000 species go extinct each year, and this rate is estimated to be 1,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate (1). Human beings are causing irreversible damage to the oceans and their wildlife, which is being led by two major reasons: Commercial fishing or over-fishing, which damaged the marine environment and caused a loss in the marine life diversity, and pollution, which is a primary way of the extinction causes that drastically modifies the marine life habitat. As a result of the commercial fishing and pollution, many of the marine species will start disappearing of the oceans. Briggs emphasizes that over-fishing “has induced population collapses in many species. So instead of having less than a hundred species at risk, as was the case some 30-40 years ago, there are now a thousand or more (10).”
Lotze, Heike K., Marta Coll, Anna M. Magera, Christine Ward-Paige, and Laura Airoldi. "Recovery of Marine Animal Populations and Ecosystems." Trends in Ecology & Evolution 26.11 (2011): 595-605. Print.