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April 14, 2005 [LINK]

Save the sea turtles!

If the weather had cooperated while we were in Costa Rica, we would have gone to the Caribbean beach town of Tortuguito, which means "little turtle" in Spanish. I've seen nature documentaries on the fascinating life of sea turtles on numerous occasions, but I never took the time to do any serious reading about them. I just read Sea Turtles: A Complete Guide to Their Biology, Behavior, and Conservation by James Spotila (Johns Hopkins, 2004). It has lots of beautiful photos and plenty of useful data about the seven species found around the world. I learned that over 22,000 Green turtles nest around Tortuguito every year, one fourth of the world's total. The biggest sea turtle, the Leatherback, can dive as deep as 4,000 feet in search of food. Loggerheads nest on the beaches of Florida and the Carolinas, while the endangered Kemp's Ridley nests exclusively in Mexico, not far from Texas. It was saved from extinction in part thanks to the mandated use of "turtle excluder devices" (cost = $300 each) on fishing nets. I don't mind paying a little more for my tuna, do you?

Sea turtle conservation

The ten best
  1. Australia
  2. U.S.A.
  3. Costa Rica
  4. Mexico
  5. Brazil
  6. French Guiana
  7. Oman
  8. Suriname
  9. Greece
  10. Malaysia
The ten worst
  1. Japan
  2. Taiwan
  3. Spain
  4. Korea
  5. Philippines
  6. Indonesia
  7. Thailand
  8. Morocco
  9. Cuba
  10. Equitorial Guinea

Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 14 Apr 2005, 3: 54 PM

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