MARINE TURTLES · Aug 21, 10:50 PM
Millenarian animal on the way to extinction
Marine turtles inhabit the planet for more than 100 million years. They evolved from the fresh water turtles, although they are different because they have skin between their fingers instead of legs. This is due to their adaptation to a life in the sea. They also lost the capacity to get the extremities (head, tail) back in the shell. The marine turtles are cold blood animal: they use the solar light to warm up their bodies because they are not able to maintain a constant corporal temperature. They breathe with lungs, emerging periodically to breathe. All the turtles reproduce by internal fertilization. After mating, females migrate towards beaches (generally to the same beach they were born in). Depending on the species, they put between 50 and 200 eggs in a nest. The young can take between 45 and 75 days in borning. Sexes of the young are determined by the temperature of the sand during the incubation: high temperatures produce females and low temperatures, males. It is supposed that only one from a thousand of little turtles will survive to maturity. The sexual maturity can last between 10 and 50 years, depending on the species. There is no way to determine the age of a marine turtle by its physical appearance. Some species can live more than 100 years. In Costa Rica five of the seven species of marine turtles that live in the world are present.
The Baula Turtle
This marine turtle is the greatest in the world: it can measure up to 2,4 meters in length and 500 kg or more. It eats mainly jellyfish. This turtle does not have a bony shell; its body is covered by a heavy layer of skin similar to the leather. Its predominant colour is the black with some white spots. It is able to regulate its corporal temperature controlling its blood flow, allowing it to move towards colder waters in search of food. Also, the great fat content of its heavy layer of skin acts like an efficient thermal protection, preventing excessive loss of the accumulated heat. They are able to dive to great depths, up to 1,300 meters. During the immersion, the marine turtles lower its heart rate and its brain works with reduced oxygen concentrations. Nowadays, according to the red list of worldwide endangered species, marine turtles are in critical danger of extinction since in the main beaches of nests their populations have decreased up to 90% during the last decade. In the Marine National Park of Las Baulas, the main site of turtles nests in Costa Rica, it was considered that 1,367 turtles arrived in the end of years 80; now, the population fall appearing suggests that in year 2009, they will not be more than 50. The more important sites of nests are in Mexico and Costa Rica, appearing in both countries the same decrease of the number of egg-layings.
A change for life
Through their long history, marine turtles survived huge changes in the atmosphere, the same that caused dinosaurs extinction. Nevertheless, nowadays, their survival is in doubt more than ever. It is necessary to protect this millenarian animal; that’s why the government of Costa Rica is adding beaches of nesting for turtles in the National System of Protected Wild Areas, which guarantees a special care for these animals when they are on earth. However, although this action is important, it is not sufficient, since the nature of these marine species is migratory and during their long trips in waters their lives are in danger. The aid of all the active forces that involves the Caribbean and the Pacific is necessary, this way our grandsons will not only know marine turtles as dinosaurs. For further information on the subject, please visit
Inter-American Convention for the Protction and the Conservation of Sea Turtles.
The original text is in Spanish
— Randy Explorer
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