6 Amazing Facts You Never Knew About Sea Turtles
Photo by Jody Watt/Design Pics/Corbis. Design by Erik Mace for Yahoo Travel.
This
month, all over the southern U.S., Central America, and the Caribbean,
thousands of tiny little sea turtle hatchlings are emerging from their
eggs, digging their way to the surface of the sand, and scurrying down
beaches to the ocean. We’re coming toward the end of sea turtle nesting
season (March through October) in the western hemisphere, and there’s
good news this year: Researchers say 2015 is shaping up to be a banner
year for sea turtles from the Carolinas to Florida — their numbers have
rebounded after a slump year, according to the Associated Press.
This season, I was lucky enough to participate in the yearly sea turtle conservation program at the Four Seasons Resort Nevis,
which the hotel runs in conjunction with the Sea Turtle Conservancy
(STC). (The 2016 dates are July 15-19; it’s not to be missed.) Along
with David Godfrey, Executive Director at STC, local volunteer
conservationists, and other resort guests, I spent hours each night
walking Nevis’s beaches in the complete darkness (no flashlights
allowed) hoping to see a sea turtle digging her nest and dropping her
eggs. This year, we found two — Luna and Millie,
both hawksbills. The turtles were tagged and released in order to help
STC track them and gain valuable knowledge that will aid with future sea
turtle conservation efforts. But more than just helping the cause and
seeing the amazing sight of sea turtles nesting, I learned what
fantastic creatures they are. Here are six amazing things you need to
know about sea turtles.
1. There used to be millions of sea turtles in oceans around the world. Now there are thousands in limited areas.
This
horrifying photo of tourists disturbing nesting sea turtles in Costa
Rica is just one example of how we affect the amazing creatures. (Photo:
Sea Turtle Conservancy/Facebook)
Some kinds of sea turtles have become extinct, and six of the surviving seven species are considered endangered. Unfortunately,
it’s human behavior that’s obliterating them. Sure, before they are
full-grown they have natural predators like sharks, but we’re the big
problem. We encroach on their nesting beaches and hurt them and ruin
their habitats with our excessive use of things like plastic and
chemical sunblock. Additionally, while many nations have outlawed the
international trade of seat turtles and sea turtle products (like real
tortoise shell, which comes from sea turtles, not tortoises), in other
places, it is not illegal to poach.
2. Experts believe that sea turtles can live to be about 100 years old.
There
is no good way to determine the age of sea turtles other than their
growth rates and their size. Their age is important to understand,
because it explains one of the reasons why they are so vulnerable,
according to STC’s Godfrey. It takes sea turtles a long time to reach
sexual maturity so that they can reproduce, maybe as long as 30 or 35
years. “There are so many obstacles to their survival before reach that
age,” explains Godfrey. Therefore the adult sea turtle population is
very valuable within the eco system, because it takes so long for them
to get there. Then they can continue to lay eggs until they die. Once
they are fully mature, sea turtles’ only real predators are humans.
3. Turtles have GPS. (Seriously!)
Turtle GPS? (Photo: Thinkstock)
Sea
turtles can sense the earth’s magnetic field, and that’s how they
navigate. That basically means they have a built-in, high-tech GPS
system, explains Godfrey. They detect the angle and the intensity of the
field, which is unique every place on earth, and they use it to migrate
very long distances — thousands of miles, in fact. They can find little
islands in the middle of nowhere, says Godfrey. “That’s unbelievable
for a reptile.”
4. Female sea turtles return to the exact beach where they were born to nest, no matter how far away they live.
Thanks
to their GPS, as well as some sort of map they are born with in their
brains, female sea turtles return to their birth place to lay their
eggs. Think about it: “These sea turtles only spent five minutes on the
beach where they hatched, crawling down to the ocean,” explains Godfrey.
They spent the next 30 or 35 years floating around the ocean [nesting
is the only time they come on land], thousands of miles from where they
were born. Yet they still find their way back to that very same beach
after decades to lay their own eggs. “That’s why it’s so imp to protect
their nesting habitats,” says Godfrey. “If 35 years later the beach
where they were born is a bunch of condos, it’s a problem. They are
driven to come back to the same site.”
5. Only 1 in 1,000 (and at times, possibly 1 in 10,000) baby sea turtles survive.
Hatchlings (Photo: Thinkstock)
Not
only are the preyed upon by animals from raccoons to sharks, but
development on the beaches where they are born can be deadly. When baby
sea turtles hatch, they are drawn to the light, which is supposed to
direct them in the direction of the ocean — an uninhabited beach will
reflect the moon and stars off the water. However with development and
lots of white lights, hatchlings get disoriented and often scurry in the
wrong direction (away from the water towards the lights of
civilization). If not redirected, they can easily die.
6. The sex of a baby sea turtle is determined by the temperature of the egg in which it was gestating.
More
than that, the sex is determined by the temperature of the individual
egg during a very small window of time during gestation. Cooler eggs
(like those buried deeper down in the sand or more in the shade, become
male. Warmer eggs, like those buried closer to the surface or in a
sunnier area, become female. Due to global warming, experts are seeing
an uptick in the number of female sea turtles born says Godfrey.
(They’re not yet sure what this means for the well-being of the
sea-turtle population in general.)
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