| | Bennett Interviews Florida's Environmental Lawyer known for fighting for endangered species on Florida's Coastline Beaches and How we can better protect baby sea turtles to ensure they swim out to sea. |
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| Bennett’s Town of Palm Beach Sea Turtle report for 2014 July 25: Reporting from Palm Beach this summer I’ve been monitoring our sea turtle status here locally. Did you know that this year on Palm Beach municipal beach we already have 183 nests? Approximately there are 90 eggs per nest which equals 16,470 eggs. There are many dangers to sea turtles including tossed fishing hooks, plastic and other pollution as well as motorboats. In palm beach three of the seven types of sea turtles nest here which are the Green, Loggerhead and the Leatherback. During this summer Blue Marble Eco-news visited Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton which Florida Atlantic University faculty and Marine Scientists as well as volunteers work to help rehabilitate injured sea turtles. There we talked to marine scientist Connie who is also a managing director. We saw several sea turtles there with different illnesses or injuries. Some reasons that sea turtles need rehabilitation include fishing nets, motorboats and tumors caused by polluted water from harmful nitrates like human waste or fertilizer. Connie said that some scientists believe that since there used to be hundreds of types of sea turtles dating back to the Ages of Dinosaurs - The Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods, the sea turtles are a ‘human indicator’ of how long mankind will be around as sea turtles decrease in numbers towards extinction. One-reason sea turtles are special and unique because they have the best GPS system of any technology or other animal on the planet and swim thousands of miles around the oceans currents to return within 1,000 yards of where they were born to nest their eggs. Just last week while swimming at my beach which is a sea turtle conservation area, I witnessed a deceased green sea turtle that was approximately 200-300 pounds and fully mature who had come back to its birthplace to create a nest for its eggs. Unfortunately this turtle died this return trip because a motorboat had hit it. Right off our beach is a reef where after the sea turtles lay their eggs they go to rest and feed. We believe this is where the boat was as lots of people like to go there to snorkel. |  Here are some things we can do to better protect sea turtles: · Educate humans · Open more marine sanctuaries · Add better markings for motorboats Please see my Sea Turtle PowerPoint and listen to my podcast with special environmental lawyer guest star discuss other things that can be done to insure the survival of our sea turtles. (Above) Bennett, Senior Blue Marble Views Eco-News Blogger |
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