Leatherback Sea Turtle

All About the Leatherback Sea Turtle!

As the largest turtle in the world, the Leatherback Sea Turtle can even grow larger than a fully grown human man.The Leatherback turtle is unique from many in its species by not having a hard shell. Through significant adaptions to increase it speed and agility in the water, the Leatherback is the only remaining species that can be traced by to more than 100 million years because of these adaptations! The Leatherback Sea Turtle has a flexible, rubbery shell with ridges to help with agility; this allows them to spend over 85 minutes under water.

Reasons for Decline

Like many of the endangered animals in the world, almost all of the problems these turtles face can be directly linked by to human actions leading to only about one in a thousand Leatherback turtles making it to adulthood! Threats to these turtles include hunting by humans to the turtle meat or their eggs, accidental by-catching while fishing and even being struck by boats in over populated areas! Pollution is also a huge threat to these turtle, with a diet mainly consisting of jelly fish, Leatherbacks often mistake pieces of plastic for food and slowly die from constant consumption. Deceased turtles has been found with almost 11 lbs of  plastic in their stomachs! Unfortunately, even with all of the threats these turtles face in the ocean, they also are losing hatching locations. With constant coastal development, Leatherbacks are losing places to safely lay their eggs and having the hatchlings fully develop and make it back into the ocean. Watch the video below to see a Leatherback Sea Turtle being saved from entrapment!

Geography's Role in Conservation 

Because the Leatherback Sea Turtle is a migratory species their exact locations and population numbers are hard to pinpoint, especially considering they have the largest population dispersion of all reptile species! However, the map to the left shows where the turtles can be located, the Leatherback will often migrate from one location to the other following their food sources. As expected, geography plays a huge role in the conservation efforts for the Leatherback Sea Turtle. As mentioned earlier, locations for the Leatherback to safely lay it's eggs is decreasing because of the constant development of coastal locations. Also the pollution of plastics and other materials in the geographical location in the sea are slowly killing these unique creatures as well!

The Turtle's Ecological Role

As stated before, the Leatherback Sea Turtle is a migratory species, often following their largest food source, jellyfish.   If these turtles were to become extinct, the jellyfish, though food sources for other species, would have a significantly high increase in population numbers. When jellyfish number increase, even humans can be effected. Jellyfish have been found to clog the nets of fisherman, sting an increasing number of tourist and even choke intake lines of power plants leading to problems with the mechanics. If problems with these power plants become bad enough, humans and wildlife would find themselves in a lot worse trouble than a small sting on the leg!

What is Currently Being Done

There is good news and bad news about what is currently being done for these extraordinary creatures. The good news? The Leatherback is now protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, leading to a stable and increasing population of turtle is the Atlantic! The bad news? This is not happening all over the world, even though there are international legislative act occurring all over, numbers in the Pacific are decreasing very quickly including the complete disappearance of these animals from Malaysia. To help stop this, conservation efforts are being done all over the world. Many locations are working on increasing the population of the Leatherbacks by creating lighting ordinances and nest protection services to ensure the hatchlings not only make it to being fully developed, but all the way into the water as well. Many scientist are also closely monitoring the migration patterns of these turtles in order to determine where they are thriving, and where the threats are causing large patterns of death. Many organization such as the NMFS is also leading efforts to change fishing procedures with TEDs,  to help lessen the number of turtles caught in these lines every year.

 

How You Can Help!

There are many ways you can help support the conservations effort for the Leatherback Sea Turtle:

1. Spread the word! Use social media or other online forums to spread the word about these amazingly unique and prehistoric creatures!
2. Support organizations working to save these animals such as the NMFS or WCS  with your verbal or financial support! Link: http://www.wcs.org/saving-wildlife/ocean-giants/leatherback-sea-turtle.aspx
3.  Support conservation efforts with just your name: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-the-leatherback-sea-turtle-petition/

Fun Facts About the Leatherback!

1. The temperature of the nest will determine the sex of the hatchlings!
2. The female will often return to where she was hatched to lay her eggs
3. A female can also lay up to 100 eggs
4.A fully grown male can weigh up to 2,000 lbs!
5. They can dive the deepest of any turtle, up to 3/4th of a mile!

 

 

Sources:

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/leatherback-sea-turtle/
http://www.fws.gov/northflorida/SeaTurtles/Turtle%20Factsheets/leatherback-sea-turtle.htm
http://www.wcs.org/saving-wildlife/ocean-giants/leatherback-sea-turtle.aspx
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/turtles/leatherback.htm#conservation