Latest Sea turtles Stories
The journeys of two marine turtles around the world's oceans will be available to view online this Christmas, thanks to a new research project launched by the University of Exeter.Noelle and Darwinia are two adult female leatherback turtles that nest in Gabon, Western Central Africa. The research team has fitted each turtle with a small satellite tracking device, which enables the scientists to monitor their precise movements and observe where and how deep they dive. The tracking began on 7...
Pilot Study May Lead to Larger Effort to Reduce Turtle BycatchResearchers are using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and satellite-linked data loggers to learn more about turtle behavior in commercial fishing areas and to develop new ways to avoid catching turtles in fishing gear. This marks the first time an ROV has been used to follow turtles in the wild to learn about their behavior and how they interact with their habitat.Heather Haas, Henry Milliken, Kimberly Murray, and Eric Matzen of...
Demonstrating that short genetic sequences identify migratory marine speciesConservation geneticists who study sea turtles have a new tool to help track this highly migratory and endangered group of marine animals: DNA barcodes. DNA barcodes are short genetic sequences that efficiently distinguish species from each other"”even if the samples from which the DNA is extracted are minute or degraded. Now, a recently published research paper by scientists from the American Museum of Natural...
Loggerhead turtles are facing a heightened risk of extinction, due largely in part to commercial fishing, according to a new report.Matthew Godfrey, a biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, told the Associated Press that it is normal for commercial fishing fleets to find loggerhead sea turtles in their nets.The practice of commercial fishing is now a crucial threat to the loggerheads' existence, Godfrey and colleagues wrote in a recent federal report.Known to be in...
In an effort to protect rare sea turtles from being caught and killed in fishing nets, fishery managers have looked to a Cape Cod company to build a device they think can help save the turtles without interfering with fishing profits. The device is called a "tow-time logger", which is a 7-inch silver cylinder attached to fishing nets to record how long the net is submerged in the water.That amount of time is absolutely critical if a turtle is captured in the net and dragged behind...
Canadian researchers in Halifax, Nova Scotia, say they're thrilled a rare leatherback sea turtle they tagged and released last summer turned up in Colombia. The Canadian Sea Turtle Network tagged 11 of the turtles with satellite transmitters and released them into the Atlantic Ocean last May, spokeswoman Laura Bennett told The Chronicle-Herald. The transmitters on the other turtles likely fell off, but one on the female named Nueva Esperanza, or new hope, enabled staff to locate her almost...
Washington state officials say a family will be allowed to keep their pet, a rare western pond turtle, but the animal will be owned by the state of California. Barry Mason of Ridgefield and his wife Chae Yon said their family adopted the turtle when they encountered it as a baby 21 years ago while camping in Northern California. They said the turtle apparently was taken from their home during a birthday party for their son, Shon, in April, The (Vancouver, Wash.) Columbian reported Monday....
- Sea Turtle safe lighting used at luxury beachfront hotels in Florida - LED lighting meets Florida Fish and Wildlife requirements AUCKLAND, New Zealand, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Axiom NZ, a leading global manufacturer of LED lighting systems, has announced that its extensive line of Sea Turtle safe LED lighting systems are being used at various Florida resort hotels. Axiom NZ Amber Sea Turtle Lighting products are being used at the W Hotel in Miami Beach, the Eden Roc Hotel and Spa in...
The world's oldest sea turtles -- leatherbacks and loggerheads -- will become extinct unless U.S. agencies do more to protect them, a lawsuit says. To save the turtles, the Obama administration must alter the policies set by former President George W. Bush, said Todd Steiner, executive director of the California-based Turtle Island Restoration Network. Otherwise, we will lose these magnificent animals in our life, Steiner said. The western Pacific leatherbacks swim from Indonesia to...
Four years ago the people of Runduma decided to start protecting the turtles that they once used on the Indonesian island to help with finances, such as to put children through school or keep the village kitty in petty cash.Environmentalists now say that the turtle population is growing in the seas off southeast Sulawesi, and the turtle hunters have become their guardians in the battle to save the marine reptiles from extinction. "We used to have a long and unique tradition...
Latest Sea turtles Reference Libraries
The Hawksbill Turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata, is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. The species is distributed throughout all of the world's seas, but the Atlantic and pacific populations are divided into two subspecies. E. I. imbricata is the Atlantic subspecies and E. I. bissa is the Pacific subspecies. The Hawksbill is predominantly known as a tropical sea turtle found in the tropical seas of the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, they...
The Loggerhead Sea Turtle, Caretta caretta, is the only member of the genus Caretta. It is prevalent in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. There is a subspecies that is also found in the Greek Islands and in the waters off southwestern Turkey. Loggerheads live most of their lives in open water. They may be found along the ocean floor or near the shore where they mainly forage. The adult loggerhead can weigh as much as 200 pounds and can reach close to 40 inches in length. Most loggerheads...
Kemp's Ridley, Lepiochelys kempii, is a critically endangered species of sea turtle. Their range includes the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. They are also the only turtle which almost all the females return to one single beach (Rancho Nuevo in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas) every single year to lay their eggs. They are the smallest of the sea turtle species, growing less than 40 inches and weighing about 100 pounds as an adult. Kemp's Ridley sea turtle changes color with its...
The Green Sea Turtle, Chelonia mydas, is a large sea turtle. Its distribution extends throughout tropical, subtropical and some warmer temperate waters. In the Atlantic, they are found off the coast of Florida and around the U.S. Virgin Islands and Costa Rica. In the Pacific, they are found from the Hawaiian Islands all the way to Midway. Other subspecies of the Green Sea turtle extend all over southern climatic waters. The Green Sea Turtle grows to 39 to 59 inches in length, and can...
The Leatherback Sea Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, is the biggest of all living turtles. It reaches a length of over 8.8 feet and a weight of 2,000 pounds. It is the world's 4th largest reptile. It is found in all tropical and subtropical oceans. It is the only extant species in the genre Dermochelys and the family Dermochelyidae. This species has many unique features that distinguish it greatly from other sea turtles. Its shell lacks the bony scales of other turtles, comprising mainly of...
