Chances are we've almost all seen the large posts in the ground warning us not to walk over where sea turtles have laid their eggs when we are at the beach; or we've heard the phrase "Save the Turtles!"at one point or another. But do we ever really stop to think about what that means? Sea turtles are some of the most fascinating (and important) creatures in the ocean, and yet, over time, the population has started to decline at drastic rates.
In total, there are seven different sea turtle species. Three of these species are listed as endangered, and two more are listed as threatened. The seven different species are called Green, Loggerhead, Flatback, Hawksbill, Leatherback, Kemps Ridley, and Olive Ridley. Fossils relating to sea turtles date back to over hundreds of millions of years ago, and sea turtles used to live in abundance throughout the ocean. However, over the past 100 years, sea turtle populations have significantly decreased, largely due to human influence.
Sea turtles were commonly exploited for their meat, and other profits, which caused a drastic hit to the population. On top of this, pollution, and a decrease in available land for laying eggs has also been detrimental to the overall population. Historically, there were dozens of known sea turtle populations, and yet today, only seven remain.
One of the largest concerns regarding sea turtles is the nesting and hatching process. Male sea turtles spend their entire lives in the water, the only time they are outside the ocean is when they hatch. However, female sea turtles appear on the shore multiple times every few years to lay eggs. Many female sea turtles return to their natal beach to lay their own eggs, a process which occurs from usually April to October in America. Although it's extremely interesting, untrained human intervention can actually be detrimental to the process. People are known to scare away female turtles before they even lay their eggs; or confuse newly hatched baby turtles with house lights, and flashlights, causing many of them never to reach the ocean.
Preventing the extinction of sea turtles is extremely important for many reasons, including the fact that they are responsible for maintaining the well being of many ecosystems. Sea turtles are actually known as "the lawn mowers of the sea," a comical yet fitting name for the mysterious creatures. Certain sea turtles are some of the only species known to eat sea grass, which grows along the ocean floor. This promotes the health of the sea grass beds, which directly contributes to the maintenance of biodiversity in the ecosystem. Sea turtles also maintain the health of the vegetation growing on the beaches in which they lay their eggs. Turtle shells and turtle eggs provide different necessary nutrients for the plants growing in the sand, which is hard for these plants to acquire in other ways. Vegetation in dunes helps increase the strength of the dunes, without this vegetation, the dunes would likely begin to disappear.
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| Leatherback Turtle |
Although they have been around for what seems like forever, there is still so much that scientists are trying to uncover about sea turtles. They remain largely a mystery, and much about their lives and habits are unknown to scientists. Scientists continue to try and learn more about the fascinating animal, and yet they find themselves racing time, and trying to reverse the severe damage that humans have created for the species.
I never realized the specific ways that sea turtles contribute to surrounding ecosystems, so I found this post really informative! Hopefully there can be more efforts made to preserving their populations.
ReplyDeleteI never knew that sea turtles had such an important role in our ecosystem but this was so interesting to learn about! Like you said, we've been making changes in society to "Save the Turtles" like using paper straws and such. Its cool to know about why turtles are so important now and why there is such an effort to save them.
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