The Loggerhead turtles' nesting season is in May and when the oil spill occured, there was a problem. On the northeastern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, female sea turtles began to lay their eggs. When these eggs hatch, the turtles come out of the ground and try their hardest to make it to the ocean. If they make it, they find their way onto mats of seaweed called sargassum and float around on the sargassum for several years. By June, all the sargassum had been contaminated with oil. Then the state and federal wildlife agencies came up with a plan to take the eggs before they hatch and send them to Florida, where they will hatch and be let into the oil-free Atlantic. Loads of volunteers were needed to help out and people helped basically just because they loved turtles! 5 species of turtle that nest on American beaches are threatened or endangered and the Loggerhead turtles are one of those species. Now the volunteers and wildlife agencies try to find the turtles' nests and they protect them. This isn't easy because they have to wake up very early, before anyone gets on the beach, to see the tracks of the female turtles, which are called turtle crawls, and find the nests.
Opinion:
I think what the wildlife agencies and the volunteers are doing is very important. The Loggerhead turtles are already endangered and it would be horrible if they became extinct. It would lower the biodiversity of the area and it would disrupt the food web. I like that the volunteers love these turtles enough to help them survive. I think that since humans made this problem, they should have to fix it. I also hope the oil spill gets cleaned up soon so it stops negatively affecting marine animals.
1. Do you think transporting the turtles to be hatched on the coast of florida was a good idea?
2. If you were a person that lives in an area where the turtles hatch, would you volunteer to help?
3. Why do you think the turtles float around on the sargassum for a few years?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/magazine/03turtles-t.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
I think that this article is great about volunteering. It's amazing hat people can love animals this much that they will go out of their way to help. I personally love turtles. They are so cute and small especially baby turtles. For question number two, I am postive I would help. This is good cause! The oil spill would have killed most of those baby turtles. We should at least help what problems we have created. I had fun reading this article abou the turtles surviving!
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a very serious problem, however we're really lucky that we have so many voluteers that are willing to help the wildlife affected by the oil spill. If it weren't for these volunteers that were willing to out so much time and effort into helping these turtles, just like Rachel said, the biodiversity level in the area would lower signifigantly and their decrease in levels could seriously affect the ecosystem.
ReplyDeleteI found a link that basically allows volunteers to sign up for different activities so they can help the wildlife affected by the oil spill. Whether it be just donating money to a fund, or actually volunteering to help look after and clean the wildlife, this site allows people to get involved with the damage the oil spill has done.
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/how_to_help_volunteers_needed.html
In my opinion this is really bad the way that factories don't care about the animals in the ecosystem and just looking for ways to kill them by poisoning their food source. This is great that people volunteer for this kind of work and they try to save as more turtles as they possibly can. I hope more would join them and help them save the turtles community.
ReplyDeleteI found the following link that expands about the topic of how danger it is to spill oil in the ocean and how the turtles community are getting killed by these cruelty. The government have to make them stop spilling oil and stop the turtle slaughter!
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/05/gulf-oil-spill-dead-sea-turtles-wash-ashore-in-mississippi.html
I think that everyone should do everything that they can in order to help the turtles live, and find better places to hatch far away from the oil spill. I think that even the government should take things partially into their hands, and BP should have to pay to help the turtles live.
ReplyDeleteQuestion- If i were in an area where the turtles hatch i would defineately help transport them. I think it is a great way to give back to the wildlife and would love to experience somthing as awesome as helping a species that needs our help because of problems that we ourselves caused.