Baby turtles: look but don't touch!
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| Turtle drawings by Mary Beath, used with permission from Fagatele Bay Natl. Marine Sanctuary edition of the Sea Turtle Coloring Book produced by The Ocean Conservancy. |
Baby sea turtles. They’re so neat -- perfectly formed miniatures, all racing down the beach together to get into the water. Kids think they’re cute and they want to keep them as pets, and plenty of parents think baby turtles make great pets. After all, they don’t bark or fight, and they’re so tiny so they don’t take up much space. They don’t eat much, either.
Also, some people in American Samoa believe that when a nest of turtles hatches and all the babies run to the sea, their mothers are waiting out on the reef to eat them! Because of this misguided belief, some people collect baby turtles and keep them at home or release them on a different beach. The very best thing we can do for baby turtles is: LEAVE THEM ALONE!
Many years of scientific research on sea turtles have taught us that mother turtles do not eat their babies. Adult turtles eat mostly seagrass, algae (seaweed), and sponges (the living kind, NOT the kitchen kind). In fact, after the female turtle has laid eggs (sometimes two or three times in the space of a few weeks), she goes back out to the sea and leaves the area. For example, after nesting at Rose Atoll, some of American Samoa's green sea turtles swam to Fiji – over 800 miles away! So, those of you with good intentions out there, rest assured that mom will not be eating her babies, and you do not need to collect the baby turtles from the beach to save them from her.
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| Turtle photo by Marisa Tinoco. |
It is true that baby turtles do have predators, such as large fishes and sharks. Nature provides the turtles with some protection however: (1) most turtles hatch at night when predators might have difficulty seeing them, (2) baby turtles are dark-colored, and this “cryptic coloration” enables them to be camouflaged as they swim over the reef, (3) female turtles can lay over 100 eggs in a single nest — when this many turtles hatch at the same time, a big jack (ulua) or shark (malie) can’t possibly catch and eat all of them, so some have a chance to hide in the reef. This is called “predator swamping” and is common among reptiles (lizards, snakes, turtles, etc.). For this reason it is a bad idea to take “just a few” baby turtles away, and release them later. The “predator swamping” effect is lost and those baby turtles will probably end up as some fish's lunch.
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| Photo by Gil Grant. |
A critical reason to leave baby turtles on the beach is that THAT EXACT BEACH is very important to them. Baby turtles remember or “imprint on” the beach where they hatched. Like many animals, turtles have little natural magnets in their brains that allow them to home-in on their native beach. Years later when it’s time for them to reproduce, adult turtles, with their internal “homing devices”, will seek that same beach. If hatchling turtles are removed from their home beaches and kept in someone’s bathtub or bucket, chances are they will become confused and have little chances of surviving, let alone finding their home beach later (that is, if they don’t just die in the bucket).
Sea turtles have been around for millions of years and survived just fine before humans started taking their babies off the beach, whether to “protect” them or otherwise. Newly-hatched turtles, just like their gigantic moms and dads, are wild animals and are not meant to be kept as pets. The ocean provides better food and a cleaner, healthier environment for turtles than humans can.
Turtles are far-ranging animals that swim thousands and thousands of miles in the sea during their lifetimes. When they go to their nesting islands, they meet with other turtles, mate, lay eggs, and so keep their species alive. Every time a female sea turtle finds her way back to the beach where she was born and nests there, she completes the ancient, natural cycle that keeps sea turtles alive on Earth. Imagine a turtle imprisoned in a bucket, tub, or garbage can, swimming endlessly in tiny circles, never to see the open ocean, never to meet another turtle, never to help its species survive.
Sea
turtles all over the world are dwindling in number. All species are listed
as threatened or endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, including
our own green and hawksbill sea turtles. If we want our children and
grandchildren to be able to see these huge, magnificent sea turtles swimming
alive and free in the ocean, where they belong, we have to do our best
to protect them now. The very best way we can to do that is by protecting
the beaches where they nest, letting the baby turtles find their own way
into the sea, and not hunting the big turtles. Future generations of
turtles (and people) will thank us.
Holly Freifeld - DMWR