10 Things…About Sea Turtles!
- The earliest known sea turtle fossils are about 150 million years old!
- Female sea turtles tend to return to nest to the very same beach where they themselves were born!
- Sea turtles act as the “lawn mower” of the sea, eating the sea grass beds on the sea floor! Just like up here on the surface, sea grass has to be kept short in order to stay healthy!
- Sea turtle eggs provide nutrients that are essential to dune vegetation! Without these nutrients, the vegetation would not be as healthy, resulting in loss of dunes by increased erosion!
- There are so many obstacles for baby sea turtles to overcome, both manmade (eating tar or plastic) and natural (getting caught in seaweed or being eaten by predators), that only 1 in 1,000 survives to become an adult!
- Sea turtles can migrate hundreds to thousands of miles when traveling from feeding grounds to nesting beaches!
- Female sea turtles can lay 110 eggs in a nest… two to eight times a year!
- The most common sea turtle in the United States is the Loggerhead – which was placed on the Endangered Species list in 1978.
- It is now believed that sea turtles have the ability to detect magnetic fields. Today, researchers are investigating whether the turtles can use that ability to navigate!
- Altruette supports the Sea Turtle Conservancy, who aims to ensure the survival of sea turtles within the Caribbean, Atlantic and Pacific through research, education, training, advocacy and protection of the natural habitats upon which they depend.
