Sea turtles under threat from plastic

WORLD Sea Turtle Day was celebrated on June 16. But with eight million tons of plastic dumped in our oceans every year, these amazing creatures are under threat. In fact, six out of seven species of marine turtle are threatened with extinction.

Interesting facts about turtles:

● Turtles don’t have teeth. Instead, their upper and lower jaws have sheaths of keratin (the same stuff fingernails are made of) that fit onto the skull like false teeth.

● Turtle shells are made of over 50 bones fused together – so they’re literally wearing their bones on the outside.

● The first few years of a marine turtle’s life are often referred to as the “lost years”. That’s because the time between when the hatchlings emerge until they return to coastal shallow waters to forage is incredibly difficult to study. The lost years they spend at sea – which can be up to 20 years – largely remain a mystery to humans.

● Marine turtle species vary greatly in size. The smallest, Kemp’s ridley, are around

70cm long and up to 40kg in weight while the leatherback can reach up to 180cm and 500kg in weight. That’s over 10 times heavier!

● It’s estimated that as few as one in 1 000 marine turtle eggs will survive to adulthood. And if beaches are strewn with litter, it can prevent hatchlings reaching the sea.

● Female leatherbacks make some interesting noises when they are nesting – some of which sound similar to a human belch.

● Turtles seem to prefer red, orange and yellow coloured food. They appear to investigate these colours more than others when looking for a meal.

● Marine turtles can migrate long distances – the record is for a female leatherback which swam nearly 13 000 miles over 647 days from Indonesia to the west coast of America! – WWF