Sea Turtles

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Few steps to save the turtles:

Reducing the amount of artificial light that is visible from nesting beaches is the first step to reducing light pollution that affects sea turtles. Coastal communities around the world have passed ordinances that require residents turn off beachfront lights during turtle nesting season. Unfortunately, these ordinances are not always enforced and don't address the larger problem of sky glow that occurs near cities.

Raising awareness about illegal shell trade

Educating tourists and suppliers

Get informed about local waste disposal to ensure that untreated waste water isn't introduced to natural waterways and oceans.

Speaking out against off shore drilling

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Nesting turtles once had no trouble finding a quiet, dark beach on which to nest, but now they must compete with tourists, businesses and coastal residents for use of sandy beaches. U.S. beaches, popular with humans and turtles alike, are now lined with seaside condominiums, houses and hotels. Lights from these developments discourage females from nesting. If a female fails to nest after multiple false crawls, she will resort to less-than-optimal nesting spots or deposit her eggs in the ocean. In either case, the survival outlook for hatchlings is slim.

Lighting near the shore also can cause hatchlings to become disoriented and wander inland, where they often die of dehydration or predation. Hatchlings, scientists believe, have an innate instinct that leads them in the brightest direction, which is normally moonlight reflecting off of the ocean. Excess lighting from the nearshore buildings and streets draw hatchlings toward land, where they may be eaten, run over, or drown swimming pools. While it might seem like a difficult problem to tackle, an estimated one third of all lighting in the U.S. is wasted. With an annual expenditure of about 30 million barrels of oil and 2 million tons of coal on unnecessary lights, the cost of the wasted lighting equals about $2 billion each year!

source: http://www.tourdeturtles.org

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Turtles can become entangled in gillnets, pound nets, and the lines associated with longline and trap/pot fishing gear. Turtles entangled in these types of fishing gear may drown and often suffer serious injuries to their flippers from constriction by the lines or ropes. In addition to entangling turtles, longline gear can also hook turtles in the jaw, esophagus, or flippers. Trawls that are not outfitted with turtle excluder devices (TEDs) do not allow turtles to escape, which may result in mortality through drowning. Fishing dredges, extremely heavy metal frames dragged along the ocean floor, can crush and entrap turtles, causing death and serious injury. In the Pacific, coastal gillnet and other fisheries conducted from a multitude of smaller vessels are of increasing concern. These fisheries, called artisanal fisheries, can collectively have a very great impact on local turtle populations, especially leatherbacks and loggerheads.

source: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/turtles/threats.htm

[saveturtles]

SEA TURTLES

Sea turtles, also called "marine turtles," are air-breathing reptiles with streamlined bodies and large flippers. They are well-adapted to life in the marine environment. They inhabit tropical and subtropical ocean waters throughout the world.

Of the 7 species of sea turtles, 6 are found in U.S. waters: green, hawksbill, Kemp's ridley, leatherback, loggerhead, and olive ridley. The 7th species, the flatback sea turtle, is found only in Australia.

Although sea turtles live most of their lives in the ocean, adult females must return to beaches on land to lay their eggs. They often migrate long distances between foraging grounds and nesting beaches.

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Sea turtles bouncing back in U.S. Southeast Endangered sea turtles are rebounding ‘dramatically’ along the Southeastern U.S. coast, federal officials say, but they’re still at risk from pollution and climate change.

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Coast Guard helps release 500 baby sea turtles

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — More than 500 sea turtle hatchlings were gently released by hand Thursday onto sea beds off Florida’s Atlantic Coast, where the turtles have a better chance to survive.

The U.S. Coast Guard assisted with the release about six miles off the coast of Boca Raton because it is committed to protecting endangered species, officials said in a statement.

"I’m very passionate about the environment," said Chief Cannon Schider-Heisel with the U.S. Coast Guard. “And my job affords me the chance to do that sometimes, where I get to help educate the public about the environment. It’s a facet of my job that I love.”

Schider-Heisel, who volunteers at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, where the hatchlings were collected, joined marine scientist Melanie Stadler and other turtle rescue volunteers to release 311 loggerhead and 194 green sea turtles on Thursday.

One by one, the turtles were slowly placed in the water and onto beds of seaweed where “they have more hope to survive,” said Schider-Heisel, who described the sea beds as a La-Z-Boy for the baby turtles, or a safe and comfortable place for them to be released.

The hatchlings, some as young as two days old, came from turtle nests from beaches throughout Florida where the loggerhead, leatherback and green turtles next regularly. Two other species also nest in Florida in very small numbers, the Kemp’s ridley and hawksbill.

The loggerhead is threatened and the green and leatherback are endangered, but all sea turtles are federally protected. It is against the law to touch or disturb nesting sea turtles, hatchlings or their nests. Signs are posted on beaches during nesting season, as adult females emerge to nest on the beach mostly at night. The hatchlings also emerge from their nests mostly at night. Only about one in 1,000 baby turtles survive to adulthood.

"A lot of these I literally pulled out of a nest," said Stadler as she held a baby turtle in her hand to show a Coast Guard crew member. "I have a connection with a lot of them, as do the rest of the turtle specialists. We all rescue these little guys every morning and knowing that we get to release them and they are healthy and ready to go is pretty awesome."

Stadler said the Coast Guard’s assistance with transporting so many baby sea turtles at once was “crucial” for their survival.

Florida’s nesting season runs from March through October on the Atlantic coast, and from May through October on the Gulf Coast.

source