Endangered Turtles by Benjamin Wey
My name is Benjamin Wey, and ever since I can remember I’ve loved turtles. I am a turtle hobbyist and have two pet three-toed box turtles of my own. As a turtle and nature lover, one of my passions in life is endangered turtle conservation. This site is my small contribution to helping save these beautiful creatures. In it I will include a listing of some of the world’s most endangered turtles, and what we can all do to help save them before they become extinct.
Endangered Turtles: The Problem
Currently, there are six different kinds of sea turtles that call our oceans home. Of those six different species, all six are endangered. So what could be causing this? Well unfortunately, it’s not just one thing- it’s many things- none of which have a simple solution. That’s why I created this site: to help you, the reader, understand not only what is at stake by these turtles being endangered, but what you can do to help prevent their extinction.
Nesting Issues
A big problem concerning replenishing the sea turtle population is the trouble that many female sea turtles have with nesting. You see, as more of the worlds beaches become populated by resorts, homes and private developments, they become less attractive and viable for sea turtles to lay their eggs. As a result, the mother turtle may try to lay her eggs and risk losing the hatchlings, or simply abort her eggs and not even attempt to hatch them. If she does choose to try hatching her eggs, their problems don’t end there. Turtle eggs have many predators their mother must try to hide them from. These predators include everything from other turtles, birds and even humans, who use turtle eggs for turtle soup- a delicacy in many areas of the world. In many cases, these egg poachers would go as far as to harm the mother just to get to her eggs! In the off chance that the eggs survive to maturity and become hatchlings, the hatchlings also face a rough road to adulthood.
When turtles are hatched, they are born with a set of natural instincts- like all animals. For centuries, hatchlings have known to follow the glinting lights of the sun or moon on the ocean to find food and water. Tragically, with so many beaches becoming populated, these poor hatchlings have a new disadvantage: they cannot differentiate between the glinting lights of the moon on the water and the neon and street lights of your typical resort town. In many cases this causes the infant turtles to move away from the ocean and into harms way- where they can starve, dehydrate, or be killed crossing streets and roadways to get to the very light they believe will help them. As a result of this, it is estimated that only 1 in 1000 sea turtles will survive to maturity. When you consider that as a species turtles have thrived with no problems before now for an estimated 245 to 208 million years, it isn’t hard to see we’re facing a huge crisis.
The Challenges of Adulthood
Once a turtle has beaten the odds and survived to maturity, her battle is hardly over. Over what should be an 80 year lifespan, the average sea turtle will encounter many more predators- natural and otherwise.
As I mentioned before, nesting turtles are more vulnerable to poachers looking to steal not only their eggs, but their calipee – cartilage found in the bottom of the shell of the turtle which is also a delicacy. Calipee poachers are extremely cruel predators- removing the cartilage from live turtles, and leaving the wounded animal to die a horrible, slow and excruciatingly painful death.
Another cause of death and great pain for some sea turtles are Fibropapilloma tumors. You may have seen these tumors in documentaries about sea turtles. They appear as gigantic cell clusters that resemble cauliflower heads. They can appear anywhere on the turtle where flesh grows- this includes flippers, tails and faces. These tumors can seriously hamper the afflicted turtle’s swimming ability, and in some cases cause starvation, when the tumor grows over the turtles eyes, blinding them and preventing them from finding food. The cause of these tumors is unknown, but I’d be willing to bet its some sort of environmental factor, such as the millions of chemicals and units of garbage and pollution dumped into the sea each year. (I should note that I am not by any means an expert- that’s just my theory.)
Yet another danger to turtles is their unintentional capture and subsequent drowning in nets used for shrimping. Because of the speed these nets are dredged at, fishermen are not often able to rescue the turtles from the nets in time. As a result, turtle safe nets have been developed, but there is some resistance amongst the shrimping community, because many fishermen believe these nets allow too many shrimp to escape in the process. Hardly a valid excuse if you ask me!