Leatherback Marine Turtle Research Paper

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

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 threatened bog turtle is a very small turtle, averaging 3.1 to 4.5 inches in length (USFWS 2015z) and it is characterized by a light brown to ebony shell and bright yellow, orange, or red blotches on each side of the head (USFWS 2001). The FWS proposed a final rule in 1997 to list the northern population of the bog turtle as threatened and southern population as threatened due to similarity of appearance, under provisions of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (62 FR 59605 59623, November 4, 1997). Regionally the northern population of the bog turtle is known to occur in localized distributions from western Massachusetts and Connecticut southward to Maryland, and the southern population is known to occur from Virginia southward to Georgia (USFWS 2001). In New York it is known to occur in 15 counties in the southeastern region of the state or along the south coast of Lake Ontario (USFWS

Furthermore, one of my favorite days during the program was going to the Maui Ocean Center. It is known to be the nation’s largest tropical reef aquarium. This allows people from all over the world to be able to view Hawaii’s beautiful undersea world all at once. Many of the animals that are held captive at the Maui Ocean center are mainly found in Hawaii. The Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles exhibit truly caught my attention at the Ocean center. They have a education outreach program called Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle Educational Loan Program that helps strengthen the population of this particular specie. There was a study done to see how well the captive bred green turtles were adapting to wildlife. The information obtained during 267-481 days of remote monitoring using satellite tracking gave strong support to the premise of successful adaptation to the wild by the four captive- reared juvenile green turtles released by the Maui Ocean Center (Balazs, Parker, Gorman, Luecke, Pawloski, 2015) . Current research in Hawaii shows the Hawaiian green turtle population is increasing since they have been protected by federal law (Maui Ocean Center,

Like all turtle species, human predation and collecting is a serious danger to their survival: Loggerhead eggs and the turtles themselves, are sold on the black market for food and their shells are used to make items such as boat paddles and helmets in some places (Hawkes, 2016). The black market is an illegal shop were people sell things that are prohibited to sell (Hawkes, 2016). They usually held in secret places where no one knows (Hawkes, 2016). Around 65% of Loggerhead Turtles are killed each year because of the black market (Nobs, 2004). People kill these poor, harmless animals just for profit and it need to stop (Marine Bio, 2015). But there e actually is no way to stop black markets, you can reduce them but you can’t stop it. This is because black markets are an idea and once an idea is out, you can’t reverse it and take it back. (Holden, 2014). If you were to stop this, the government of every state would need to basically go round their whole city/state and check every corner where there may be a black market, because if nothing gets done we will loose our precious creatures (Queach,

A group of researchers studied this at Rio de la Plata, a bay between Argentina and Uruguay. Using satellite telemetry from nine Chelonia mydas the researchers tagged and data on the concentration and distribution of marine waste (accounting only for plastics debris) they created a map displaying the overlapping areas of debris and Chelonia mydas foraging areas (González et al., 2014). The researchers report that the map depicts the average green turtle encountered 9 pieces of plastic every square kilometer of the overlapping areas of debris and foraging (González et al., 2014). Which led to Chelonia mydas accidentally ingesting copious amounts of debris, though death by consumption of plastic debris is rare, the ingestion of chemicals from plastic debris can hinder somatic growth and procreation turnout (González et al., 2014). To gain better understanding how much plastic debris was consumed due to their exposure, the research team examined 62 adolescent Chelonia mydas, 90 percent of the 62 turtles had eaten 13 pieces of plastic on average, 98 percent of it was found in the green turtle’s large intestines (González et al., 2014). While ingestion of plastic debris can have negative effects on the development and reproduction of Chelonia mydas, but two biggest

Loggerheads live in oceans all over the world, except in the coldest seas. There are more loggerheads in the waters of the United States than any other species of sea turtle. As mentioned by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (1978), the National Marine Fisheries Service determined that the loggerhead sea turtle is composed of 9 distinct population segments and listed four Distinct

In 1986, scientist figured out that the temperature of the turtle’s eggs determined the sex of the baby turtles. This was when they pronounced endangered. Still to this day, the green sea turtles are still endangered (“Green Sea Turtle”).

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

Loggerhead sea turtles are one of the most abundant species of the marine life in the U.S. oceans but the population is currently decreasing due to pollution increase and getting caught in bycatch. The term bycatch is when shrimp fishermen have their nets out and the animal ( in this case a loggerhead sea turtle) gets caught in the net and eventually killing the sea turtle . ((( Add More))))

After approximately two months of a female mother green sea turtle giving birth, the eggs hatch and the hatchlings make their way to the water. The newly hatched green sea turtles are very susceptible to predators, exposure and losing their way. Birds, mammals and other predators love feasting on the young turtles. One of the greatest threats to hatchlings is light pollution near beach nesting sites. The light from buildings and homes confuses the young turtles so that they crawl towards the light and not the ocean.Threats to Green Sea Turtles: Direct and Indirect Overexploitation, Green sea turtles and their food are over hunted; Disease Fibropapilloma, Development; light pollution near beach nesting sites confuses hatchling sea turtles to travel to the light instead of the ocean, Habitat Loss, and Global Warming.” According to the article “Green Sea

The species’ plastron bears similar markings to those of the carapace, i.e., wide, pale-yellow stripes on a darker background. Between the pectoral and the abdominal plastral scutes, the species’ plastron features a flexible hinge that divides the plastron into two lobes. The combination of a relative long, hinged plastron and a high-domed carapace enables the ornate box turtle to completely withdraw into its shell, thereby “boxing” itself inside and protecting the soft tissues of its head, limbs and tail quite effectively against attacks by predators.

Blanding’s Turtles have been assessed by the Ontario government as a ‘threatened’ species, as indicated in the Endangered Species Act of 2008. Understanding the behaviour and success of the species in their chosen habitats can provide useful information when creating protection and conservation plans for the future.

Recently I went on a trip to Jekyll Island and while there, my family and I went to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. Before this, I did not know much about them, other than the fact that the one in my backyard drive my dogs crazy. While at the Turtle Center, we visited a feeding of some of the turtles that the Turtle Center’s hospital was nursing back to health. This experience

People should protect sea turtles because they eat the seagrass in the oceans. Anyone who walks on the floor of the ocean knows that stepping on that slimy plant/grass is very frightening and you probably don’t think it’s a plant in that moment, buts its seagrass. Sea turtles eat the seagrass which helps them live and get the energy they need, but also helps us because when they eat it away, it is most likely going to be in a