Poachers come in the cover of night to rob her eggs. Sometimes they come for her meat, killing all turtles on a beach; sometimes they take them alive on cruel journeys to be sold on the black market. The nesting process takes hours. A sea turtle must dig a hole 2 to 5 feet deep to deposit her eggs. Afterwards, she must carefully fill and camouflage the hole — her last attempt to protect the offspring she must leave behind.
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Six of seven species of sea turtles around the world are endangered or threatened but there are many ways that anyone can help! Here are a few ways you can support conservation of wild sea turtles around the world:. The tortoiseshell trade is the biggest threat to hawksbills. Reduce your carbon footprint! Climate change affects the health of coral reefs which are vital to the hawksbills survival. A warming planet also skews sex ratios in baby turtles, changes the abundance and distribution of prey, increases erosion of nesting beaches, and more.
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Sea turtles have roamed the ocean for over million years, but now, their reign is rapidly ending because of plastic pollution in the ocean. The ocean is quickly becoming plastic soup. Researchers have estimated that more than 8 million tons of plastic end up in our ocean, annually. If you have problems grasping the sheer size of that figure, try and imagine a truckload of plastic being dumped into the ocean every minute! Plastic pollution affects sea turtles throughout their lifecycle. From the moment they are born, they face the risk of injury — or worst: death - because they ingest or get entangled in plastic. Researchers estimate that over half of all sea turtles in the world have ingested plastic. You might be wondering why sea turtles and plastic pollution is something you should care about.
Turtles are a group of reptiles with a cartilaginous shell originating from their ribs, which shelters them from predators. Based on the temperature in the surrounding atmosphere, the temperature in their body fluctuates and therefore they are called ectotherms or cold-blooded. They are one of the most ancient groups of reptiles and like many other amniotes, they lay their eggs in the land even though some species are inhabitants of aquatic bodies. Other human activities related to agriculture and aquaculture , fishing in particular trawling without Turtle Excluder Devices and use of FADs with entangling nets , urbanization, contribute significantly in this regard. Likewise, man-made pollution created by mismanagement of waste products in domestic, industrial and agricultural sectors are noteworthy.
