Pacific Leatherback Sea Turtles

Lucky me, I was just handed a 204 page "Leatherback Synopsis" from the Fish and Wildlife Service that I get to read. Hopefully I'll have a lot more to share with you by the time I've finished it!

Strange enough, I had a dream about a leatherback sea turtle last night. It was a very odd dream; it basically combined my STRP work and memories from playing Super Mario 64. Maybe not that weird I guess, because after all the Koopas and Bowser are turtle-like characters. But Leatherback sea turtles are not really like Koopas at all. So don't think that. I'm realizing only some people will understand what a Koopa is, or who Bowser is, but oh well.

MOVING ON…

I’ve gotten a large number of comments from friends and family in California who claim that they didn’t even know there were sea turtles off the Northern California coast. Here you go my darlings, some information on the Pacific leatherback sea turtle, which can be found nearly everywhere in the Pacific Ocean with exception of Arctic waters. The waters off the western U.S. coast are actually incredibly important feeding grounds for the Leatherback sea turtles, but these waters are also swarmed with commercial fishing fleets and plastic marine debris—causing their population to fall drastically. Their numbers are so low that they are rarely seen, and as a result they are carelessly overlooked!

What a little cutie! :)

Some facts about leatherbacks:

• They are black in color, often with whitish spots.
• The leatherbacks (Dermochelys coriacea) is actually separated into a different taxonomical family from the 6 other species of sea turtles (family Dermochelyidae; the other species are part of the family Cheloniidae).
• Leatherbacks are the only turtle without vestigial claws on their flippers, scales and a hard shell. Instead they have a leathery shell that has seven ridges for a streamlined body.
• A number of unique adaptations allow this species to survive in colder waters.
• Leatherbacks can grow to over 6 ft long and weigh around a ton. They are the largest marine reptiles on earth.
• The leatherbacks have been around for more than a hundred million years—and survived the extinction of the dinosaurs—but now human activities have got their populations in critical danger.
• In the summer and fall, the leatherbacks migrate from their nesting grounds in Indonesia 6,000 miles to northeastern Pacific waters (off the Northwest U.S. coast) to feed on jellyfish. They then return to Indonesia for the breeding season. This is the longest known migration of any living marine reptile.
• According to the World Wildlife Fund, as few as 2,300 adult female leatherback sea turtles remain in the Pacific Ocean.

Super cool!

What are some things that can be done to protect these beauties?

1. We need designated critical habitat along the U.S. west coast! Ideally we need to protect leatherbacks everywhere, but for now this is a crucial start. Actually, on Feb. 4th the Turtle Island Restoration Network, Center for Biological Diversity, and Oceana today filed a notice of intent to sue the federal government for failing to protect leatherback sea turtle habitat off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington. See the press release here!

2. Harsher regulations are needed for fishing operations that catch sea turtles, sharks, sea birds, and marine mammals as bycatch. Fishing methods such as drift gill nets and longlines can entangle, harm, and commonly drown over 200 species of marine life. Recently, legal action has been taken against Hawaii’s Swordfish Longline fleet in order to reduce the number of sea turtles being caught as bycatch.

3. Not only are plastic packaging, single-use plastic bags, and plastic bottles unsightly waste, they are also a serious threat to sea turtles and marine life in all oceans and on all continents. INCLUDING ANTARCTICA. Leatherback sea turtles mistake the floating plastic for jellyfish—their main food source. The poor things swallow the plastic, which can block their digestive tract, cause starvation, or choke the turtle to death.

4. STRP is re-starting our Leatherback Watch program! It is hard for any action to be taken in the protection of leatherbacks because there is such limited data being collected. It’s hard to accurately know the number of individuals in a sea turtle population let alone any of their activities because males spend their entire lives at sea. Female sea turtles only emerge from the water so they can lay their eggs on sandy beaches. Having that said, at STRP we’re kick-starting again our Leatherback Watch program that will allow anyone to call in and report a leatherback sighting, which will provide data for researchers. More information on this to come!

5. Tell others about these amazing sea turtles! If people don't know they exist then they won't think about protecting them, am I right? Public education is SO important!

Okay y'all that concludes my spiel on the lovely leatherback sea turtles. Stay tuned for posts on the other six species! Spread the word of love & turtles!

Sources:

STRP - www.seaturtles.org

National Geographic - http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/leatherback-sea-turtle.html

"We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch, we are going back from whence we came."

- John F. Kennedy

The Heartbreak Turtle Today, a documentary

Ever since I started my internship here at STRP I have been primarily working on outreach for this educational documentary, The Heartbreak Turtle Today. On day 1 of my internship I watched this film 2 or 3 times, and began work on a press kit to be sent along with DVD copies to PBS stations across the country. Since then we've sent it out to 14 PBS stations in Washington, Oregon, California, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi, as well as 4 local access stations in Florida. And I've still got 60 more local access networks to contact that I haven't gotten around to yet.

I literally just got off the phone with a producer for one of the local PBS stations here in CA, and he said that he wants to show The Heartbreak Turtle Today on the anniversary of the BP oil spill. Which is AWESOME :) !!!!!

I think it really shows that community and local efforts can make a huge difference. Really touching stuff. I don't want people to think that they have to be in the Gulf of Mexico to make a difference when it comes to sea turtle and marine life conservation. Even if you are in the landlocked Midwest (hello, mi familia) you still have a tremendous impact on important conservation matters such as fossil fuel use, plastic use and recycling. So don't think you aren't important! Everyone matters!

Here's a bit more info on the movie:

You can see a preview here.

The Heartbreak Turtle Today is the story of the dramatic recovery of the endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. Kemp's ridley sea turtles are the smallest and most critically endangered of all seven species of sea turtles in the world. In 1985 it was estimated that there were about 500 nesting females in the Gulf of Mexico, and now conservation efforts have helped their population grow to about 8,000 nesting females. Such a great improvement!

This documentary was produced by the Sea Turtle Restoration Project and Sunset Productions in order to show the efforts being made to help bring this population of sea turtles back from near extinction. The BP oil spill occurred in the middle stages of film production, and we get a closer look at the devastating after-effects through this moving documentary.

If you are in the Northern SF Bay Area and want to see this film, we've got a public premiere showing happening on March 29 at 7:00 pm at the Bay Model Visitor Center. The film will be followed by an interactive Q&A sesh and presentation on more local CA conservation efforts, it should be fun! So come join us!

Hopefully you'll see The Heartbreak Turtle Today on your local PBS station soon! :)

Reform Offshore Oil Regulations!

Extinction is forever, petroleum and gas will only last us so much longer... So tell me, is offshore drilling really worth it?

BP neglected marine life in their clean up efforts after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, including the burning of sea turtles alive. We at the Sea Turtle Restoration Project are calling for improved oil spill response, restoration, and improved protection for sea turtles and marine life against oil and gas.

You can make a difference! Tell Congress and Obama to rebuild offshore oil regulations to include protective measures for sea turtles. Take action today.

It literally takes two seconds to do, are you really that freaking busy?

Thanks :)

"If the oceans die, we die."
-Captain Paul Watson