Every year 16th June is celebrated as World Sea Turtle Day. The World Sea Turtle Day celebrated to spread awareness and to make the people realize about how graceful these reptiles are. The theme of this year World sea turtle day is “Shellebrate”, which says “everyone to love and save the turtles”. The first World Sea Turtle Day was celebrated in 2001.
There in total seven species found in all around the world namely : the Loggerhead, the Green Turtle, the Leatherback, the Hawksbill, the Flatback, the Olive’s Ridley and the Kemp’s Ridley.
Among these seven species, the loggerheads, the leatherbacks, the hawksbills, the Olive Ridleys and the Green turtles are found in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Although, all the types of sea turtles are endangered. But, among them Kemp’s Ridley is most endangered.
Nearly all the seven species of turtles are facing the fear of extinction. The main reason behind this are high level of poaching, destruction of their habitats, illegal catching for selling them in black markets as pets and their encounters in live or dead fishing nets. On an average the life span of a sea turtle is between 50 to 100 years.
Sea Turtles found in Indian Oceans:
India has a great track record in terms of home for these fantastic animals. Six among seven species of sea turtles are found in Indian costal and island waters. The species which found in India are: the Olives Ridley, the Green Turtle, the Hawksbills, the Loggerhead, the Leatherback, the Flatback are found and Settled themselves in our Indian Ocean.
Three arribada beaches in Odisha namely: Gahirmatha, Devi River Mouth and Rushikulya itself only become place for more than 1,00,000 nests per year.
Threats to Sea Turtles:
As discussed earlier the major threats to see Turtles are: exploitation of eggs and turtles by human activities, mortality through fishing, unorganized development beach projects which further results into destruction of their habitats, level of pollution in sea and high level of Poaching and Trafficking.
These are the major threats which the sea Turtles are facing not only in Indian oceans but also throughout all the Asia Pacific and Australian regions.
Besides these reasons there is a one more dangerous reason which has impacted them in adverse way and that is increasing levels of plastic and micro plastic in oceans. Every day tonnes of plastic is dumped in the oceans directly, usually these plastic includes polythene bags, single use straws & spoons, water bottles, fishing nets and broken buoys and especially the micro plastics. Aquatic animals eats such plastic mistakenly and develop various breathing problems and on a long term they got died as they suffer suffocation. So, Today if we can’t do something much, then we should at least ensure that our plastic should not go in any water reservoir, because as we all know all the rivers ultimately meets the oceans.
You never know but your one step can save dozens of precious sea turtles. So, happy World Sea Turtles Day. Let’s Shellebrate together.
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