Post by Urban Warrior on May 4, 2006 13:26:34 GMT
An astonishing 5,000-mile journey by the first giant turtle to be caught and tagged off the British Isles has excited scientists studying the endangered creatures. For eight months marine biologists have been tracking a 65st leatherback sea turtle that was caught off south-west Ireland last summer. People in the popular holiday resort of Dingle, Co Kerry, were enthralled when the huge reptile was rescued by scientists and a team from the local Oceanworld aquarium after becoming entangled in lobster pots. Her capture presented a unique opportunity for biologists hoping to learn more about the little understood feeding and mating habits of the largest member of the turtle family.Experts from University College Cork and the University of Wales, Swansea, fitted a satellite tracking device to the turtle before she was returned to the Atlantic.That has enabled them to follow a remarkable oceanic odyssey in which the Dingle turtle has so far swum 5,000 miles to the Cape Verde Islands, off west Africa.Leatherback turtles have been tagged in Nova Scotia and followed to their mating beaches in the Caribbean. But this is the first time that one has been tracked from the north-east Atlantic and the information gathered could help conservationists to save the species from extinction.
In 1980 there were an estimated 115,000 adult females but now there are fewer than 25,000 worldwide. The most pessimistic forecast suggests that they may be extinct in the Pacific within 50 years.Numbers in the Atlantic are a little more stable, although they are still threatened by commercial drift fishing, egg poaching and the building of hotels on nesting beaches."You don't think of these turtles being in waters near here," said Tom Doyle, a marine biologist at University College Cork."You find leatherback sea turtles in Nova Scotia and New England and they tend to mate in the Caribbean, which is a relatively short distance to migrate. What is unusual about this one is the distance we think it is going to have to travel to mate.
Source: The Telegraph
In 1980 there were an estimated 115,000 adult females but now there are fewer than 25,000 worldwide. The most pessimistic forecast suggests that they may be extinct in the Pacific within 50 years.Numbers in the Atlantic are a little more stable, although they are still threatened by commercial drift fishing, egg poaching and the building of hotels on nesting beaches."You don't think of these turtles being in waters near here," said Tom Doyle, a marine biologist at University College Cork."You find leatherback sea turtles in Nova Scotia and New England and they tend to mate in the Caribbean, which is a relatively short distance to migrate. What is unusual about this one is the distance we think it is going to have to travel to mate.
Source: The Telegraph
