Application Assignment #2: Protecting the Green Sea Turtle

Section 1: My endangered Species
The endangered species that I have chosen to write about is the Green Sea Turtle. They can grow up to for feet long and over 400 pounds! They are usually found in tropical waters and sometimes, but less common, in subtropical waters. Green Sea Turtles are primary consumers and they are omnivores. When they are young they primarily eat other animals but as they grow older they tend to eat both plants and animals. The primary plants they eat are algae and sea grass. Sea turtles also have their fair share of predators. When they are babies they are at risk of being eaten by raccoons, birds, crabs and even some fish. When they are adults they are at risk of being eaten by sharks, whales, and even humans! These sea turtles start their lives out on a beach where they are waiting to hatch. Once they hatch they make their way to the sea where they will live out the rest of their lives. The next stage of their lives is as juveniles where they grow for about 10 years  They enter adult hood when they are about 20-50 years old. Here, the females will travel back to the beaches to start to nest and the males will visit them annually. A Green Sea Turtle can live for about 80-100 years. After this the cycle starts all over again. The number of organisms has not been recorded but these turtles are considered endangered as their species is declining at a rate so rapid that they are at risk of becoming fully extinct.

A Green Sea Turtle. Photo by Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk

Section 2: The Habitat
The Green Sea Turtle occupies a variety of different habitats as it is described as being "highly migratory and use a wide range of broadly separated localities and habitats during their lifetime."  While they are waiting to be born their main habitat is the nesting beach. Once they are born their next habitat is the oceanic zone as they are just floating through the current systems. After a few years they then go into neritic areas that are rich in seagrass and algae and they usually stay here until they reach their maturity which is at about 20-50 years old. During their breeding time they will usually migrate to nesting beaches or foraging grounds, this happens every few years. During periods of non-breeding they will settle down at neritic feeding ground areas.

Green Sea Turtle at nesting beach. 

The major biome for green sea turtles is the coral reef. Coral reefs are located near the equator in tropical oceans. One of the largest coral reefs is The Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Coral reefs thrive better in warm, shallow, and sunny environments, hence why they are located so close to the equator. The temperature needed to maintain these reefs is anywhere from 73-84 degrees fahrenheit. These reefs actually survive a lot better when the ocean waters provide very few nutrients/ organisms on top of the water as it blocks the sunlight from getting to the reef. Due to their intense need for sunlight they only grow down to about 150 feet. Coral reefs are important to humans because they have chemicals in them which can actually help to make medicine for some cardiovascular diseases and even lymphoma. And of course they are a beautiful destination for tourists to visit. A few primary producers in coral reefs are seagrass, phytoplankton, and most importantly the zooxanthellae algae. The zooxanthellae algae live in symbiosis with the coral animals and they are the primary energy that fuels the coral reef. Phytoplankton actually remove the carbon dioxide from the water and help to regulate the water temperature. The primary producers are key for survival for everyone essentially because without them no one could eat!

The primary consumers in the coral reefs are the herbivores, the ones that eat the primary producers. These include things like the green sea turtles, sea urchins, sponges, and coral. Coral itself s so important because the reefs are made up of thousands of tiny coral polyps and these are what make the coral reefs. Sponges are very important to this biome because they filter water, collect bacteria, process carbon and nitrogen, and the protect the reef against nutrient density, temperature and light. The tertiary consumers, also known as the top predators, are the carnivores, the ones who hunt but are not really hunted themselves. These would be things like sharks, whales, dolphins, etc. The coral reef is different from the biome of the open ocean as it is just a more specific biome. The open ocean biome is found all over the world wherever there is an ocean, it is the largest biome on earth.

Coral Reef locations.

Open Ocean biome.

Sea Sponge in a coral reef. 

     

Great Barrier Reef. Photo by Kyle Taylor.

Section 3: Critical Threats 
One major threat to these turtles is the intentional harvesting of eggs and adults from nesting beaches. This is mostly done as people like to consume the meat and most of the time they will take the female turtles too. In Mexico turtles are only eaten on religious holidays but during this time is it recorded that as many as 5,000 sea turtles die from this. The most commonly eaten sea turtle is the green sea turtle. People will also take these turtles to sell them for their oil, skin, cartilage and shell. This is the most dangerous threat imposed on this species and this is the reason why they are so endangered. This itself could lead to the possible extinction of the whole species. With the green turtles being a huge primary consumer this would be extremely unfortunate for the whole coral reef biome is the became extinct.

Green Sea Turtles are omnivores as stated earlier so they eat both plants and animals. If all of the turtles were to die off many different things would happen. These turtles eat the seagrass and so without them the level of seagrass in the ocean would become unbalanced and overabundant. Healthy levels of seagrass help to stabilize the ocean bottom which helps protect the beaches from erosion.  Due to their long migration periods they also help to transport things like algae, barnacles, small crustaceans, etc. It would also cause an over abundance of the smaller animals that the sea turtles eat. This would also affect the larger predators like the sharks and the whales because they eat the turtles and so they wouldn't have them to feed on anymore. The birds, crabs and fish also wouldn't be able to feed on the hatchlings because there would be none. All of this would put a huge strain on the coral reef itself because it is very sensitive to any slight changes in the water and throwing off the whole food web would just in simple terms destroy the whole reef. This could also affect the general biome of the open ocean because a lot of the same things would be happening. A lot of the species found in the coral reef are present in the open ocean and so the effects would be just as bad to the species but maybe not as bad to the biome itself as it is quite larger and doesn't have the specific requirements to survive as the coral reef does. 

Sea Turtle eggs being rescued from poachers.

Another major threat to the green sea turtles is bycatch in marine fisheries. Bycatch is the incidental capture in fishing gear. This happens when people go out fishing for one certain thing, like tuna or other big fish, and they catch things like sea turtles and other species on accident. Usually when this happens the animal is discarded as trash or they are sent back into the ocean where they will most likely die. These turtles also drown as they sometimes get caught in these gill nets that these fisheries send out in the ocean to catch fish. Humans also pose a large threat on sea turtles as they do things to destroy their nesting beaches. Some of these things include walking over the areas where the eggs are buried and damaging them, the construction of buildings and sand extraction, and even an excess of lights as they are fatal to hatchlings because they distract them from going into the water. Humans also destroy their marine habitat by polluting and contaminating the ocean water. 

Sea Turtle caught in a fishery net.

Section 4: Solutions to the Threats
 Although it may not seem like it, people all over the world are contributing to these threats of the green sea turtles, even people in Keene, NH. If you eat seafood, any type of seafood, you are contributing to the problem of bycatch from fisheries because you get your seafood from these fisheries going out and capturing the fish and crabs, etc. One of the solutions to this is to get your seafood that is caught sustainably without bycatch. The Monterey Bay seafood watch helps people find sustainably caught seafood. Also if you eat turtles than you are contributing to the problem of illegally harvesting them. In the United States sea turtles are protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. This provides help to these species and makes things like harvesting turtle eggs illegal. The problem with this is that the only place these turtles are protected is in the United States, so this doesn't help the species as a whole it only helps the ones who are protected under this law. So some other possible solutions that we could enforce are educating as many people as we can on what is happening to these turtles and advocate for their protection to individuals in power who would have the authority to do something about it. We could also advocate for their to be someone who patrols these nesting beaches daily in hopes of cutting down the amount of eggs that are stolen. Some other things we could do would include putting up signs to warn about where potential hatchlings are, STOP POLLUTING THE OCEANS, and just being mindful of where these species are and what they need to survive. 

A sea turtle nest being blocked off to warn people not to touch this area.