Article by: Tim Hume and Errol Barnett
Published: March 2, 2012http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/02/world/africa/leatherback-turtle-gabon/index.html
Photo: Leatherback turtles are known for their excellent swimming. They spend nearly all their life in the water, so this is important.
Summary: The Leatherback Turtle has become endangered due to many human impacts. These turtles are being poached for their eggs, which causes a severe drop in their population. It is known that for every 1000 eggs laid, only a few may survive to maturity. Commercial fishing is also a big problem because the turtles can get caught in the nets. However, pollution is a major problem. The turtles feed on jellyfish, and plastic bags can easily be mistaken for them. As you can see, the reasons for their endangerment is entirely because of negative human impacts. All those impacts account for an 80 % drop in their population. This leads to them being listed as a critically endangered species. An organization called ASF is attempting to hatch the turtles in a safe place in order to increase their chances of survival. So, far their efforts have not seemed to have a great impact.
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Opinion
ReplyDeleteI am really shocked that the turtles are going extinct. I would be verybad for the ecosyatem if the species disappereared. Hopefully the humans will be able to do something to get the population of the turtles to go up. I remember seeing turtles on the Sea Isle City beach but now I barely see one turtle in the ocean or near the beach.
Question 2
If the turle went extinct then the ecosystem will probably collaspe. I beleive that the turtle will be a keystone species and soon everyone will find that out. Hopefully the turtle doesn't go extinct though. All the other species would slowly disappear and maybe make an adaptation.
I am suprised this has happened because with all the programs we have we should be able to protect these animals from poaching and other threts.
ReplyDeleteWe could stop commercial Fishermen and people poaching. Second we could lost them on an endangered species list and set up a program to protect them.
I'm really surprised that humans could be so careless as to effect an entire species to cause it to decrese 80%. I can't believe that people are still poaching their eggs when they know the turtles are an endagered species.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2: If this species went extinct we would be able to tell if it was a keystone species by examining the effect it has on its ecosystem. Also, if the turtle goes extinc it may actually show humans how much we are hurting animals and act as a 'wake up call' to help and protect other species before it's too late for them.