Sea Turtle Information

Written by lyra beck (works cited)

Sea Turtle Life Cycle

Sea turtles are reptiles that live about 100 years. They start life as an egg laid by the mother sea turtle in a hole on a beach. The mother buries them and cleverly disguises the nest to look as if no hole had been there at all. Then the mother heads back to the ocean, exhausted. Six weeks to one month later, a hatchling uses her nest tooth to cut through the egg. Slowly, she begins to climb to the surface. She has long front flippers that she will use for propelling herself through the water, and stubby back flippers for steering. After a lot of digging, her tiny head pokes through the sand. Inside of the nest was safe, but out on the beach, there are lots of things waiting for a snack. She knows she's being watched even before she is fully out of the nest. She makes a dash for the sea, knowing that she’s being pursued by crabs and seagulls. She moves as fast as her flippers can carry her down, into the water. She swims for 2 days and eventually ends up in a current. She settles in a seaweed flotsam. This is where she spends the first ten years of life. At ten years, she comes back to the beach she was born, to mate and then lay her eggs, starting the life cycle all over again.

Turtle Population Information

Sea turtles have been around since the time of the Dinosaurs. That’s WAY longer than humans. The Cretaceous period was when marine turtles as we know them today started appearing, that was about 120 million years ago. There are 7 species currently living on our earth. Unfortunately, according to the World Wildlife Fund, they are all threatened for extinction. Three species are in the Vulnerable category - the Leatherback, Loggerhead, and Olive Ridley. If an animal is in the Vulnerable category, it means that there’s a high risk of extinction. The next category is Endangered. The Green turtle species is currently in that category. This means that there is a very high risk of extinction. There are two species in the worst category before extinction, Critically Endangered. The species are Hawksbill and Kemp’s Ridley. The last species, the Flatback is data deficient. This means that there is not enough data to place it in a category. This data shows how sea turtle populations are dropping.

How Sea Turtles Help Humans

Some people think of sea turtles as just another animal. It turns out, sea turtles are a keystone species. Many animals benefit from them...including humans! Some ways sea turtles help us are stabilizing seafood populations, eating jellyfish, laying their eggs on the beaches, and consuming kelp. First, let’s talk about the stabilization of seafood. An ecosystem is a delicate balance of life. For example, if I took the sea turtle from the open ocean habitat, jellyfish would overpopulate the ocean! Jellyfish and Man of Wars, a close cousin, eat small fish and plankton. Some of that plankton is fish larva. If there are too many jellyfish, then the larva that they eat won’t get a chance to grow up and become the seafood that humans like to eat. Also, as jellyfish populations grow, you will become more and more likely to get stung at the beach while you do your favorite beach activity like snorkeling or boogie boarding. Now, let's talk about sea turtle nests being helpful. You can’t live on the beach without sea turtles. Fun Fact: only 80% of a mother’s eggs hatch. The other 20% of eggs stay in the sand to provide nutrients to beach plants like beach grass. The roots of the grass help keep the beach you live on and the house you live in from eroding into the ocean. Finally, sea turtles contribute to the environment too. Adult green sea turtles eat sea grass like a lawnmower. This keeps the sea grass healthier. Sea grass absorbs CO2 from our atmosphere which slows global warming. So, healthier sea grass means a healthier environment. As you can see, there are several ways sea turtles help us including keeping the populations of man of war and jellyfish under control to increase seafood populations and enjoyment of the beach, fertilizing the beach to prevent erosion, and eating sea grass to decrease global warming.

How Humans Hurt Sea Turtles

Did you know that sea turtle populations are dropping because of humans? It’s true! One of the ways is human trash and pollution like oil spills, beach debris, light pollution, and plastic bags. First, consider oil spills in the ocean. Sea turtles who come up to breath can suffocate in the oil and die. Another threat to sea turtles is debris left on the beach. This can trap hatchlings on their way to the water and further exhaust the mother on her way up to create a nest. Third, light pollution can confuse and disorient the hatchlings and the mother, prone to going to the brightest light on the beach, which should be the moon. Instead of going to the ocean, they end up following various human light sources into dunes where they are vulnerable to land predators. The final threat is plastic bags. Sea turtles think that this human made menace looks like food! You can tell the difference, but sea turtles can’t. They think it looks like a jellyfish to snack on. In most cases, sea turtles eat it and get sick or die. These are some examples of how human trash and pollution hurt sea turtles.

Another way humans impact sea turtles is by purposely or accidentally interfering with their life cycle in a bad way. Some examples are poaching and accidental capture. First, let's talk about poaching. Poaching is hunting an animal that’s protected under certain laws or considered endangered. In every country, poaching is illegal. Sea turtles are poached for their eggs, shells and meat. In Mexico, turtle eggs are poached and sold at a market. The poachers poke around the beach to find the hollow nest and then dig up all the eggs. In Cuba, Nicaragua, and Honduras, the Hawksbill turtle is poached to make money. First, they take the turtle and kill it, then take the scales off it’s shell to turn into Jewelry. Next, they sell them to tourists as souvenirs. On the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean, people poach sea turtles for their meat. They use large mesh nets to catch and then later slaughter Green and Hawksbill sea turtles. Another bad way humans can interfere is by being negligent. Commercial fishers accidentally capture sea turtles in commercial fishing nets. Sea turtles can get entangled in them and drown. This is how humans interfere with the sea turtle life cycle.

How Organizations Help Sea Turtles

It is evident that humans hurt sea turtles. But, what about helping sea turtles? There are some organizations, like The Oak Island Sea Turtle Protection Program (OISTPP) and Paso Pacifico, that work on nest conservation. First, OISTPP helps protect nests by monitoring the nests, guarding the nests during Incubation, building pathways to guide the hatchlings safely to the water, and defending the hatchlings from natural predators. This has led to a record breaking number of sea turtle nests in 2019. Next, Paso Pacifico works on protecting nests from poachers. More than 90% of unguarded sea turtle nests are destroyed by poachers. Luckily, Paso Pacifico has a solution. They use fake eggs to track down poachers. They 3D print the eggs with a squishy plastic to make it feel like a real egg. Next, a Hollywood makeup designer paints the eggs to look like the real thing. Then a GPS tracker is placed inside each fake egg. The fake eggs are placed in nests. When poachers steal the eggs they also steal the fake eggs. This enables Paso Pacifico to track down the poacher, report the poacher to law enforcement, and even return the eggs to the wild. These are some ways that organizations help sea turtles.

How YOU Can Help Sea Turtles

YOU can help sea turtles too! There are two very basic ways that you can help. First, reducing plastic waste so the turtle won’t eat it or get trapped in it. Ways that you can do this are...use fabric grocery bags, utilize reusable water bottles, and make use of reusable straws, plates and silverware. Another way you can help is by keeping nesting beaches safe. One thing you can do is to fill up any holes you dig so sea turtles and their hatchlings don’t fall in the holes. Another thing you can do is not walk on the beach at night with a flashlight which disorients the hatchlings from the correct path to the water. Finally, you can pick up trash on the beach so hatchlings don’t get trapped in it. YOU can help sea turtles flourish by reducing the amount of plastic you use and keeping nesting beaches safe. Sign our pledge to promise to help sea turtles.