The Leatherback Sea Turtle

The giants of marine turtles, Leatherback Sea Turtles are oceanic reptiles that can reach 6 to 8 feet in length and weigh 1,200 to 1,500 pounds. These dark green or black skinned turtles are often speckled with white or pink blotches. Their name comes from their leathery covered carapace, which is actually comprised of many thin, interlocking bone-like plates which make up the carapace. It is a circumglobal species, meaning that it can range throughout almost all the oceans of the world. It nests on tropical beaches in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.

Leatherbacks are unique among sea turtles in that their primary food is jellyfish. They also will eat fish, mollusks, squid, sea urchins, and other marine creatures. Adult Leatherbacks ply the seas alone, except on occasion gathering to feed in areas with large numbers of jellyfish. Their preference for jellyfish makes them susceptible to a threat: floating plastic garbage in the oceans. Nearly 50 percent of Leatherbacks recently studied had plastic bags or cellophane lodged in their stomachs or intestines. Dead sea turtles have been reported containing everything from pieces of plastic milk jugs to bits of balloons, items likely ingested when mistaken for jellyfish.

Sea turtles swim with grace and speed and have been clocked at an amazing 22 miles per hour. They are also remarkable among reptiles in that they can survive in cold waters; they have been reported as far north as Norway and south off the coasts of Chile and New Zealand. This range is possible because Leatherbacks can keep their body temperature warmer than the water surrounding them, due to a thick, oily, fat layer under their skin and their ability to shunt bloodflow away from cold flippers. All other sea turtles are confined to the warmer regions of the world's oceans.

Leatherbacks require warm tropical beaches to incubate their eggs. After mating with a male just off shore, the female waits for nightfall to clamber up the beach, dig a shallow pit in the sand, and deposit her eggs. The female then buries the eggs with her hind flippers and compacts the sand with the weight of her body before crawling back to the sea. Although a female may lay as many as 100 to 150 eggs at time, only a few will survive to grow to adulthood and breed. Life is perilous for a tiny hatchling sea turtle. They are a favorite food for natural predators such as raccoons, seabirds, sharks, and large fishes. If it can survive to adulthood, spending as long as 10 to 15 years at sea, a turtle will return to breed at the same beach where it hatched.

Sea turtles have used the same nesting beaches for thousands of years. The nesting beaches turtles prefer are often the same beaches most heavily used by people, and nesting turtles are easily disturbed by noise and bright lights. All over the world, hotels, restaurants, and homes have encroached on turtle nesting beaches. Female turtles are frightened away and eggs are crushed by humans sunbathing, playing, and driving on the beaches. Upon hatching, the baby turtles often get confused by the lights of buildings near the beach; they are supposed to be drawn to the bright white light of the surf. When they get confused, they can go the wrong way and die.