RED DEER ADVOCATE (Alberta) 08 January 05 Sea turtle display at museum (Lana Michelin)
Central Albertans can become immersed in the world of giant sea turtles through a special exhibit opening this month at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre.
The Vancouver Aquarium's Endangered Leatherback Sea Turtle exhibit starts on Jan. 29 in the centre's Marjorie Woods Gallery.
Program co-ordinator Todd Nivens expects "a really good interactive display" with three-dimensional models, computerized components, and artifacts such as giant turtle shells.
Unfortunately, live specimens aren't coming because of the onerous requirements of keeping an 2.4-metre-long, 900-kg sea turtle thriving, said Nivens.
"They are salt water turtles and require different temperatures at different times of the year.
"It would just be too difficult for us to maintain."
The specialized requirements of leatherback sea turtles have, in part, contributed to the animals' demise.
The total world population is unknown, but experts believe only about 20,000 to 30,000 breeding females exist in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
This is a significant decrease from the 1980s.
Nivens said the impressive reptiles have smooth soft shells that make them more vulnerable to the effects of global warming.
Their diet largely consists of jellyfish - a population that is itself crashing because of warmer ocean temperatures.
While leatherback turtles have been found in waters ranging from tropical to sub-arctic, aquatic debris is a hazard to their existence.
Nivens said the turtles are mistaking balloons and plastic bags for jellyfish and choke or entangle themselves.
Baby sea turtles, born on beaches, instinctively follow the glow of moonlight to water.
But electric lighting along shorelines makes them disoriented.
Nivens said they head in the wrong direction and become prey for gulls.
He believes the leatherback exhibit, on at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre until mid-February, should be an interesting experience for all ages. The display is free but donations are welcome.