Marine Turtles - What a Distance!
Conservation corner
Stabroek News
March 3, 2007
Marine turtles are long-lived reptiles. This means that they are believed to live for 100 years and more! Reptiles are animals with scales that live both on land and in water. Their bodies are protected by hard shells. They reproduce by laying eggs on sandy beaches. Marine turtles spend most of their lives in the ocean. They feed on algae, small crustaceans, and other marine species such as jellyfish.
Young marine turtles drift and feed in the open ocean. When they are about 30 - 45 cm long marine turtles settle in waters close to land, where there is plenty of food, and remain there to feed and grow. We call these areas their feeding or foraging grounds.
Marine turtles grow slowly and take between 30 and 50 years to reach sexual maturity, which is the stage when they can start to reproduce or lay eggs. They live for years around the feeding site before they begin to migrate the long distance from the feeding ground to the beach where they will lay their eggs. Often, the distance between feeding grounds and nesting beach can be as much as 3000 kilometres. Imagine that!
Here is an interesting real life event:
On June 25, 2005, in order to monitor the movement of turtles when at sea, WWF, with collaborating institutions and scientists placed a satellite transmitter on the back of a leatherback turtle that was nesting on the Samsambo Beach near the village of Galibi in Suriname. By sending signals to overhead satellites, the transmitter has permitted WWF to track the path of the turtle. Consequently, after more than 18 months at sea, WWF is better able to understand where leatherbacks go once they leave the waters of the Guianas. Take a look. Amazing! All the way to Europe!
Quiz q: Why do leatherback turtles swim all the way from Africa to visit the beaches of the Guyana? Please send answers to:
Please send answers to:
TURTLES
WWF Guianas
87A Ituni Street
Bel Air Park,
Georgetown,
Guyana