Posts
The Kemp’s ridley turtle is the world’s most endangered sea
turtle, and with a worldwide female nesting population roughly estimated
at just 1,000 individuals, its survival truly hangs in the balance.
Their perilous situation is attributed primarily to the over-harvesting
of their eggs during the last century. And though their nesting grounds
are protected and many commercial fishing fleets now use turtle excluder
devices in their nets, these turtles have not been able to rebound.
For this reason, their nesting processions, called arribadas,
make for especially high drama. During an arribada, females take over
entire portions of beaches, lugging their big bodies through the sand
with their flippers until they find a satisfying spot to lay their eggs.
Even more riveting is the later struggle to the ocean of each tiny,
vulnerable hatchling. Beset by predators, hatchlings make this journey
at night, breaking out of their shells using their caruncle, a single
temporary tooth grown just for this purpose.
Found primarily in
the Gulf of Mexico, but also as far north as Nova Scotia, Kemp’s ridleys
are among the smallest sea turtles, reaching only about 2 feet (65
centimeters) in shell length and weighing up to 100 pounds (45
kilograms). Their upper shell, or carapace, is a greenish-grey color,
and their bellies are off-white to yellowish.
They prefer shallow
waters, where they dive to the bottom to feed on crabs, which are their
favorite food, and other shellfish. They also eat jellyfish, and
occasionally munch on seaweed and sargassum. They may live to be 50
years old.
Females aren’t sexually mature until about ten to
twelve years of age. They nest every one to three years and may lay
several clutches of eggs each season. Highly migratory animals, they
often travel hundreds of miles (kilometers) to reach their nesting
beach, usually the same beach they hatched from.
5 comments:
There are many different species of sea turtles but some are getting more endangered.
Due to the over harvesting of the sea turtle eggs, this is made the survival chances of these species even less. Stop harvesting turtle eggs!
God has given us the turtles for free, so we can make money not by killing them, but by looking after them..
It is our responsibility to protect this endangered species. We can do it by not buying the turtles' eggs and make report if see any turtles' eggs selling activities.
It's an awesome piece of writing for all the web people; they will take advantage from it I am sure.
Feel free to surf to my weblog: Stretch mark lotion
Post a Comment