Effects Of Artificial Lighting On Sea Turtle Populations

Now, as most may know sea turtles are both marine and land animals depending on what stage of life they are in. Which means that they need to be able to go on land during certain stages of their lives. One of the main reasons why a sea turtle will go on to land is to lay their eggs. Within the last few years this has become harder and harder for the already endangered species. It

My project will be dedicated in saving the turtles. I will be participating at the NOAA program. This project will mostly be learning more about turtles. Also, protecting their wildlife habitat. One of the assignment I will be given at the program is to take care of the turtle’s nesting grounds. I’ll volunteer my time and be able to have a close-up experience with these creatures. This job will require for me to be there day and night since it’s nesting season.

The Loggerhead is an endangered species. Between 1997 and 2007, around 70% of their east coast yearly nesting population was lost as a result of shrimp trawling and development in nesting areas. The Loggerhead Turtles habitat in Gnaraloo is vital for their survival. The female loggerhead usually digs her nest at night. She digs her nest with her back flippers, about 18 inches beneath the surface. When she lays her eggs they fall to the bottom of the nest and pack together after she lays the eggs she tops off the nest with sand. The hatchlings will incubate for 60- 80 days. Loggerheads nest on ocean beaches, they lay their eggs, immediately after hatchlings emerge from the nest, they begin a period of frenzied activity. Hatchlings are primarily

They are the only species of sea turtle that routinely lays eggs during daytime hours. And, they often do so en masse, during a fascinating spectacle called an arribada (“arrival” in Spanish).

The Red-bellied Cooter is being threatened by both man-made and natural causes. Do to economic growth, areas that used to be a good habitat for these turtles are now being turned into new, buildings like apartments, houses, and stores. In areas where the turtles can live, they are threatened before they have even hatched from their eggs by other predators like raccoons, skunks, or even snapping turtles. Almost all of the eggs in a nest are harmed before they have a chance to hatch. So while humans taking up land takes the Red-bellied Cooters’ homes, their predators take their lives.

The leatherback sea turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, belong in the phylum of Chordate, class of reptilian, order of Testudines, and the family of Dermochelyidae. These reptiles can be found throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. Leatherback sea turtles are the largest turtles in the world. The average life expectancy of a leatherback turtle is forty-five years. Average size of the turtles upper shell, carapace, is about five feet and has a rubber-like texture feel to it consisting mainly of oil-saturated connective tissue. On average Dermochelys coriacea can weigh any where from approximately six hundred to two thousand pounds. In length these turtles are typically fifty-five to seventy-nine inches. The lack of claws is another distinguishing

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Achieve3000, August 7, 2015). A rare leatherback sea turtle was found on a South Carolina beach in March 2015. The enormous reptile weighed 476 pounds (216 kilograms). It was spotted on the Yawkey-South Island Reserve in Georgetown County. The creature was brought to the South Carolina Aquarium. Workers named her Yawkey. She was treated with fluids, antibiotics, and vitamins. She was the first leatherback to be found alive in South Carolina. Caretakers were eager to see her returned to the sea.

Logger Head Turtles are primarily carnivores for most of their lives, meaning they mainly eat other animals (Marine Bio, 2015). Hatchlings mostly eat sponges, jellyfish, sargassum weed, small gastropods and crustaceans (Marine Bio, 2015). Juveniles, sub-adults and adults feed on conch, clams, horseshoe crabs, as well as other crustaceans (Marine Bio, 2015). As the turtles grow, their jaws get stronger (Harrison, 2005). This helps them to eat much firmer food such as Horseshoe crabs and clams (Harrison, 2005). The loggerhead turtle sexual maturity is reached between 22 to 27 years of age (Environment, 2001). While it is not clear how long a juvenile loggerhead turtle will stay in the open ocean, once it moves to its feeding

The Ocean is 70 percent of the earth’s surface, humans have explored less than five percent of the ocean, and is home to an innumerable amount of living organisms. One of its oldest inhabitants is the Cheloniidae dates back to the Triassic era, roughly 250 million years ago, (Wang et al., 2013). The Cheloniidae family has several subspecies the Eretmochelys imbricate, Caretta caretta, Dermochelys coriacea, Lepidochelys olivacea, and Chelonia mydas. While there are multiple endangered subspecies of the Cheloniidae; the endangered Chelonia mydas, commonly known as the green turtle, will be the focus of this paper. The paper will discuss the green turtle’s importance to its ecosystem, where they are most commonly found, importance to its ecosystem,

In particular, one of these seven species is comprised of the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). The largest of all hard-shelled turtles, loggerheads have massive heads, strong jaws, and a reddish-brown shell, or carapace. Their front flippers are short and thick with 2 claws, while the rear flippers can have 2 or 3 claws. Loggerhead hatchlings have a dark-brown carapace with pale brown flippers. According to National Geographic (2015), adult males reach about three feet (nearly one meter) in shell length and weigh about 250 pounds (113 kilograms), but large specimens of more than 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) have been found. They are primarily carnivores, munching jellyfish, conchs, crabs, and even fish, but will eat seaweed occasionally. They prefer to feed in coastal bays and estuaries, as well as the shallow water along the continental shelves of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.

After reading and learning about Western Painted Turtles It would be interesting to get one. Western painted turtles aren’t only interesting but they are also beautiful because of their natural colors. I loved learning about these turtles because I have always liked turtles but never knew what they were really about, how they lived, and what they are capable of. These turtles may be small but they can do crazy things. I didn’t know a turtle could walk across the highway, but they sure do. The articles said they will do what it takes when it comes to laying their eggs because they are very picky about where they are laid. I also didn’t know that turtles could manage their heartbeat. I thought that was a fun interesting fact. I never knew Colorado

The Blanding turtle are freshwater medium sized turtle usually found in The Great Lakes Regions in USA and in Canada. They are from the omnivorous species and usually eat crayfish, small animals, and plants. Their life histories traits occurs between April and November, as May and April tend to be more for mating and Early June for nesting. Less than half of these females will actually go on to reproducing. Many of these turtles can actually live up to sixty to a hundred years in age. Though these turtles spend a majority of time in the aquatics they also come on to the mainland. This is were the problem starts to occur and this is why the Blanding sea turtles are currently threatened and may soon be extinct. It is because of us humans that these species are currently facing habitat loss, have threatened nesting areas, and are unable to get from nesting areas to the lakes because of manmade roads. Why should we as humans care so much if these Blanding’s turtles go extinct? These turtles play an important

Sea turtle hatchlings are now having trouble finding their way to the sea because of all the lights from buildings that are built on the coast. They get disoriented when they are born and will wander in the wrong way away from the sea. This leads them to predators that live inland or will even cause the turtle to become dehydrated and die. Humans are also building coastal armoring that is blocking female turtles from reaching a suitable nesting habitat. This is a severe problem in Florida where they have many coastal rock elevations and sand bags. Where all this beach development is occurring thousands of sea turtles are trying to nest. Beach dredging is also having a direct effect on sea turtle's trying to nest. If the sand is too impacted or is drastically different from native beach sediment, the mother will have trouble creating the

To warm up, they bask in the sun. In winter, all reptiles in our area must hibernate to survive the cold.” This explains the uncommon sighting of most turtles this time of the season. But as soon as the weather warms up, the turtles start to come out to bask for warmth. When we were on our class trip to Prospect Park in Brooklyn, we encountered a dead turtle. The lifeless shell was flipped over and cracked. It almost appeared as it was frozen. As discussed as a class, what we were observing was in fact a turtle trying to bask in the sun on a warm spring day and the weather turn for the worst the following day, leaving the turtle to suffer. Another example of a turtle encounter was last summer in central park. On a warm sunny day, I went on a boat ride in the central park pond. On the nearby rocks, there were numerous turtles basking in the sun and cooled off by diving into the water. With my fascination of turtles, I made the person rowing with me row closer to get an up close look. Some people may wonder how these turtles get here? Most of the time, they are brought into an area as pets and then released by owners. This causes stress on the animal and its

Sea turtles have a promiscuous mating system with multiple matings. Environmental conditions such as water temperature and day length trigger sexual activity, and copulation occurs several weeks before the beginning of the nesting season. The mating area is generally in the general vicinity of the nesting habitat. After a period of mating, males depart mating areas and return to foraging areas, and females migrate to breed at a site within the region of their birth where they deposit their eggs (Limpus and Limpus 2003). Loggerheads nest on ocean beaches and occasionally on estuarine shorelines (Le Buff 1990). There are four main continental nesting locations: southeastern United States, Australia, South Africa, and southern Turkey (Dodd 1988).