Turtles Can’t Find a Vacation Spot Anywhere

Posted by at Dec 2nd, 2009 in Climate Change

Filed under: Climate Change , Plants and Wildlife
Kate Walsh Wants to Save Sea Turtles from Oceana on Vimeo .
You know what kind of aquatic creature is having a really hard time? Turtles. They’ve been around for over 100 million years, since before the dinosaurs, and now all seven species are either threatened or endangered .

What’s going now to make it so hard for turtles to catch a break? Oh, the usual. Us.

It’s the usual marine mix of climate change — higher temperatures, rising waters, changing coast line — and interference from overzealous fishermen. Turtles get tangled in ghost nets and drown, or are unintentionally caught in fishing lines. Their nesting areas are destroyed by development and pollution.

If it was just in one area, or only effected one or two species, it would be easier to have hope for the turtles. But it’s all of them, and it’s everywhere:

In Costa Rica, leatherback turtles have lost much of their nesting grounds to climate-related changes. They were once so numerous that a resort in the area had a Leatherback Sea Turtle National Park, and people would come from all over the world to watch the turtles lay eggs. Those tourists actually became part of the problem — the hotels and bright lights built on the beach messed up the turtles’ habitat and nesting grounds. Last season, only 32 turtles were seen.

In Cape Cod, Massachusetts , and on Stinson Beach in California , “cold stunned” turtles are washing ashore. The confused turtles wind up swimming far north in the El Nino warmed water. When the water turns cold quickly, the cold blooded creatures can’t swim. They float to the surface so they can breathe, and eventually float to the shore. If they are lucky, they get rescued.

In Queensland, Australia , three species of turtles brave the hazards of ghost nets to make it above the tide and lay their eggs in pits they dig in the sand. Volunteers babysit the nests, keeping pigs and dogs from digging them up. Like in Costa Rica, the temperature of the sand determines the sex of the hatchlings, and that sand has been getting hotter each year, resulting in fewer and fewer males.

In India at least 60 dead Olive Ridley turtles washed up near the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary, one of the world’s largest turtle nesting sites. Experts think they were probably killed by fishing trawlers, and then washed ashore.

In Africa, the world’s largest population of leatherback turtles comes to the beaches of Pongara National Park in Pointe Denis, Gabon. Volunteers watch for the turtles, move their nests they are below the water line, and keep the usual predators — which in this case includes lizards, crabs and birds — from eating the eggs. There’s not much they can do about the biggest threat to the turtles: plastic bags that they eat, thinking that they are jellyfish.

You get the idea.

What can you do? Support Oceana’s campaign to “Get Turtles Off the Hook” . Donate, spread the word, and tell your representatives in Congress that you want legislation to protect turtles! Turtles Can’t Find a Vacation Spot Anywhere originally appeared on Green Daily on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:01:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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Turtles Can’t Find a Vacation Spot Anywhere

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