CONCORD TIMES (Freetown, Sierra Leone) 19 Janauary 06 Sea Turtles in Sierra Leone Are Endangered (Fiona Wright)
Freetown: Conservation Society of Sierra Leone Sea Turtles are one of the biggest and most beautiful forms of marine life in Sierra Leone. They swim the ocean currents off our coast, and nest on our beaches.
There are 8 species of sea turtles in the world, and 5 kinds of sea turtles that have been documented in Sierra Leone: the Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas), the Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), the Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), the Loggerhead Turtle (Caretta caretta) and the Olive Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea).
All species of sea turtles are threatened or endangered. It is illegal in Sierra Leone under the Wildlife Act of 2000 to kill, harm or interfere in any way with a sea turtle or its eggs. Endangered species have very few individuals left in the world, due to pressures from habitat loss, hunting and disease, and are in danger of dying out forever. Leatherback Turtles are critically endangered worldwide. There are very few individuals left, and yet because people don't know, they are still being killed in fishing nets and on beaches.
Sea turtles are found in warm, temperate seas around the world. Adults spend most of their time in shallow coastal waters, bays, lagoons and estuaries, although they can venture out to sea. Sea turtles eat different foods, depending on the species. Adult Green sea turtles eat a vegetarian diet of sea grasses and algae. Loggerheads and Olive Ridleys eat mollusks, crabs, shrimps, jellyfish and vegetation.
Leatherbacks eat only soft-bodied animals such as jellyfish, and Hawksbills eat sponges, shrimps and squids. Sea turtles breathe air, but are excellent divers, and routinely reach depths of over 1000ft.
Leatherbacks have even been known to dive over 3,900ft seeking jellyfish! Hawksbill turtles generally remain submerged for 35-45 mins, while Green turtles have been known to stay under water for up to 5 hours.
They do not need to drink freshwater, as they can absorb enough from their diet and from seawater. They excrete excess salt through a gland in their eyes, which makes them look as though they're crying when they come ashore.
Sea turtles live a long time. It is estimated that once sea turtles reach sexual maturity, they can live another 30 years or so. Some sea turtles don't reach sexual maturity until they're 50! Adult sea turtle have few predators - mainly tiger sharks and humans.
Sea turtle eggs and hatchlings (babies just hatched from their eggs) are preyed upon by fishes, dogs, crabs, seabirds and other animals. Predators kill over 90% of these hatchlings.
Sea turtles lay their eggs in nests on beaches. Not just any beaches, sea turtles are very picky, and have specific beaches they nest on. They return to these same beaches year after year. Some sea turtle populations nest and feed in the same area all year long, while others migrate long distances from nesting to feeding grounds. Some populations travel over 2,094km across the Atlantic Ocean, and Leatherbacks have even been found 4,831km away from their nesting beaches! Some sea turtle populations only nest on one beach in the whole world!
Many sea turtle nesting beaches are under threat from human activities such as sand mining, development and driving trucks on the beaches. Garbage on the beach can disturb the female sea turtle as she tries to crawl up onto the beach, cause her to turn around and go back to the water without laying her eggs. Garbage can also impede the hatchlings from reaching the water, and turtles can also die from ingesting garbage. Leatherback turtles are particularly susceptible to ingesting plastic, mistaking it in the water for jellyfish. Many sea turtles also die in fishing nets each year, or are caught by fishermen as by-catch (by accident).
Sea turtles in Sierra Leone face many threats. They are vulnerable to being caught by fishermen and eaten, because many people are not aware that they are endangered and there are very few left. Some people in coastal villages also eat sea turtle eggs, perhaps not realizing the detrimental effect this can have on their population. Sand mining is also actively practiced in Sierra Leone, and the heavy trucks crush the eggs buried on the beach. There is also a lot of garbage that washes up on the beaches due to the lack of proper waste disposal sites.
Think about all of the dangers a sea turtle has to survive in order to reproduce! If she makes it past the fishing nets, reaches a beach without too many people on it, crawls up through the garbage onto the sand and manages to lay her eggs and safely return to the water without being caught and eaten, she still has to hope that her eggs will not be dug up and eaten or crushed by a truck! Then when the eggs hatch, the hatchlings have to crawl out of the sand, over any garbage and reach the water without being eaten by a seabird or animal, and once in the water they have to manage not to be caught in a net or eaten by a fish.
Remember, over 90% of hatchlings are eaten by predators, so that leaves only 10% of them to try and grow into adult sea turtles.
Sea turtles in other countries have different challenges to deal with, such as more development and lights on beach, more people, more motorboats with propellers that can collide with them in the water, and different predators. Sierra Leone has the potential to provide some relatively safe nesting areas for sea turtles, if we can restrain ourselves from hunting them, eating them, or disturbing the beaches during the nesting season.
A female sea turtle crawls up onto the beach, digs a hole in the sand into which she deposits her eggs, covers them up and crawls back into the ocean. The pile of eggs is called a "clutch". The number of days it takes the eggs to hatch depends on the species, the clutch size, temperature and humidity in the nest.
For most nests the time is between 40 and 75 days.
The sex of the embryo is determined sometime after fertilization, and may be dependent on temperature.
It is has been shown that lower nest temperatures produce more males, and higher nest temperatures produce more females. After hatching, the baby sea turtles can take 3 to 7 days to dig their way to the surface. They emerge at night to avoid daytime predators, and make their way to the sea, where they embark on a 2-day swimming frenzy to try and reach the relative safety of deeper waters.
As previously mentioned, all species of sea turtles are threatened or endangered. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international treaty developed in 1973 to regulate trade in certain wildlife species. CITES protects all species of sea turtles. Sierra Leone and 115 other countries have banned the import or export of sea turtle products.
We need to work together to enforce these laws and educate people around the country.
To help protect sea turtles and help them to recover their populations, nests can be identified and marked with sticks and string to prevent people from driving over them or stepping on them or digging them up. You can help educate people by reading them this article, by not buying any sea turtles or sea turtle eggs you see for sale, by talking to people and telling them about why we need to protect sea turtles and how they can help.
The Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL) is working to help protect sea turtles in Sierra Leone.
Sea Turtles in Sierra Leone Are Endangered