Pacifica Tribune, writer not identified, 8/21/12. "Endangered leatherback turtles seen off Pacifica coast."
 |
| Hello, goodbye Pacifica |
Confirmed
sightings of endangered leatherback sea turtles by scientists and
naturalists offshore of San Francisco are being reported to the
all-volunteer Leatherback Watch Program run by the non-profit SeaTurtles.org
over the last two days. Leatherbacks were first sighted July 14
offshore of Monterey and have been sighted regularly throughout the last
month with the most recent sighting Sunday offshore of San Francisco in
the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary by observers with
the Oceanic Society. In total, 20 individual leatherbacks sightings have
been reported offshore of Northern California in July and August.
.... Leatherbacks grow up to
eight feet long, can weight close to a ton, have survived the
extinction of dinosaurs over 65 million years ago virtually unchanged,
but are now under a serious threat of extinction in the Pacific.
Populations of the Pacific leatherback have declined by approximately 90
percent in the last 25 years under the constant assault of industrial
fishing, particularly the deadly interactions with longline and gillnet
fishing gear. Illegal poaching, vessel strikes, entanglement in marine
debris, and plastic pollution ingestion all harm and kill these
imperiled animals. Read Article.
Related - Note: picture from Reptilian Rants."A turtle without a shell?" "Yes, it’s true, leatherback turtles have lost their shells. Shell
reduction is relatively common in turtles. It seems a little funny.
After going through all the trouble of evolving impregnable armour, many
taxa then went out and removed large chunks of it. We see shell
reduction in snapping turtles (Chelydra and Macrochelys),
soft-shelled turtles, and even other sea turtles. None of them,
however, reduced their shells to the point of actually removing them." Note: The photograph is also from the Reptilian Rants website.
Posted by Kathy Meeh
No comments:
Post a Comment