![Picture](/uploads/5/1/4/1/51410217/9622332.gif?181)
The Green Sea Turtle
Scientific Name: Chelonia Mydas
Habitat: Around the same areas as the Bottlenose dolphin, tropical and climate waters.
Human Impacts which have led to the Green Sea Turtles decline are:
o Egg poaching: reduces the population. This practice was done in the past due to the turtle eggs’ cultural significance to the Indigenous people.
o Poor commercial fishing practices: the fishing lines, nets and hooks that are left in the ocean usually end up capturing or being consumed by sea turtles causing them harm.
o Rubbish pollution into the sea: waste products entering the sea can harm turtles internally and externally. Turtles consume floating plastic bags because they resemble the turtles’ food jelly fish. Swallowed plastic bags either block up the turtle’s intestines or chokes them, both may result in death. If a baby sea turtle gets caught in a line or net around its shell and cannot get rid of it, the rubbish causes deformation later on when the turtle starts to grow. Some waste products are easily broken down when disposed of in the sea. This allows the toxins and poisons in the product to disperse into the sea. The quality of the water then effects the animals living in it.
o Urbanisation on hatching sites: When a female sea turtle comes out of the water to lay her eggs, she returns to the beach where she was born. With constant new developments to our coastal cities, there aren’t many safe areas on beaches for turtles to lay their eggs. Lights on buildings and roads are another problem, for they confuse night-time nesters, making them unable to find their way back to the ocean.
Management strategies: Bycatch (accidental capture by commercial and/or sporting fishermen) of sea turtles are being minimised due to changes made to fishing gear, practices and closures of specific fishing areas during nesting and hatching seasons.
Plans for conserving Marine turtles in Australia are in the ‘Recovery Plan for Marine Turtles in Australia’,which was made in 2003
Web link: http://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/6d26f4aa-751e-4b72-9ab0-984a1d6e0fea/files/marine-turtles.pdf
Food Web:
Scientific Name: Chelonia Mydas
Habitat: Around the same areas as the Bottlenose dolphin, tropical and climate waters.
Human Impacts which have led to the Green Sea Turtles decline are:
o Egg poaching: reduces the population. This practice was done in the past due to the turtle eggs’ cultural significance to the Indigenous people.
o Poor commercial fishing practices: the fishing lines, nets and hooks that are left in the ocean usually end up capturing or being consumed by sea turtles causing them harm.
o Rubbish pollution into the sea: waste products entering the sea can harm turtles internally and externally. Turtles consume floating plastic bags because they resemble the turtles’ food jelly fish. Swallowed plastic bags either block up the turtle’s intestines or chokes them, both may result in death. If a baby sea turtle gets caught in a line or net around its shell and cannot get rid of it, the rubbish causes deformation later on when the turtle starts to grow. Some waste products are easily broken down when disposed of in the sea. This allows the toxins and poisons in the product to disperse into the sea. The quality of the water then effects the animals living in it.
o Urbanisation on hatching sites: When a female sea turtle comes out of the water to lay her eggs, she returns to the beach where she was born. With constant new developments to our coastal cities, there aren’t many safe areas on beaches for turtles to lay their eggs. Lights on buildings and roads are another problem, for they confuse night-time nesters, making them unable to find their way back to the ocean.
Management strategies: Bycatch (accidental capture by commercial and/or sporting fishermen) of sea turtles are being minimised due to changes made to fishing gear, practices and closures of specific fishing areas during nesting and hatching seasons.
Plans for conserving Marine turtles in Australia are in the ‘Recovery Plan for Marine Turtles in Australia’,which was made in 2003
Web link: http://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/6d26f4aa-751e-4b72-9ab0-984a1d6e0fea/files/marine-turtles.pdf
Food Web: