Sea Turtle Sanctuary

Did you know there are 7 different kinds of sea turtles, 4 living in the Mediterranean? 

For my environmental communications class, we had mandatory field lab to the Archelon Turtle Protection Society, though in all honesty, I would have gone even it wasn't mandatory. We were there to not only learn about sea turtles, but also to analyze the communication involved with environmental advocacy- assessing strategies, tactics, and the over all message being sent. Archelon does not only rehabilitate injured sea turtles and help protect nests and babies as they make the trek to the ocean, but they also educate the public and raise awareness. Mostly to the Greek community, but also internationally, Archelon teaches all ages about the importance of sea turtles, how they live, how we can live together with them, and what actions we can take to ensure the beautiful creatures are around for a long time.

So! Let me share with you some fun facts about sea turtles that I learned that made me fall in love with the slow swimmers of the sea.

Though sea turtles seem to be  protected at all times with their large hard shell, tiger sharks are predators of sea turtles. Unlike the cute box turtles on land, they can't retract their heads or flippers. The largest sea turtle is the leatherback which only eats jellyfish and has a uniquely soft shell, and if i to guess, tiger sharks would find it pretty difficult to eat these big guys. They are difficult to keep in captivity even if found injured and in need of rehabilitation so they were not at Archelon, but I saw a picture and they were almost 8 ft long! I certainly would like to find one in the open ocean and maybe take a swim on it's back like in Finding Nemo (that Crush is a green sea turtle- not found in the Mediterranean).

What was most interesting to me was that sea turtles can philapadry (just like salmon) and return to the place that they are born- often to lay eggs themselves. They lay about 100-140 at a time and can be impregnated by multiple males. So a "clutch" of baby sea turtles may have more than one dad! Being in Greece reminds me of Mamma Mia and the daughter trying to figure out which dad is hers... imagine a sea turtle trying to do that! Baby sea turtles have special teeth to crack open their shell when born and use the moonlight to get back to the ocean... but it's important that we don't help them along because the only way they can swim is if they make the journey after birth back to the ocean and build up their muscles. Also, the sex is not predetermined, but rather by the temperature of the sand. The warmer the temperature, the more females, the colder the temperature, the more males. So unfortunately the sea turtle population may be crisis after global climate change has been heating up some areas causing more females to be born than males. Still as long as we remember to turn off our lights at the beach to not confuse the baby sea turtles in which direction the sea is and stay off the beach at night so mamma turtles can lay eggs, we can help the critically endangered animals have a chance at survival.

I absolutely loved learning about the sea turtles, and even more getting to take a look at them. Archelon gets about 60 injured sea turtles a year and 2/3 get to be released back to open oceans. Rehabilitation can consist of X-rays and surgery to get hooks out of lungs, unwrapping unwanted fishing nets from flippers, tending to head wounds from angry fisherman, or adding weights to the back of their shells to teach them to balance again and swim upright. A few kids in our class even got to help some injured sea turtles into their respective buckets where they have a home for a bit until they can be released again.

After learning so much about sea turtles and how I personally can help to protect them, I wanted to share what I learned with the rest of my friends and readers. I hope y'all learned some fun facts, and want to protect these beautiful creatures as much as I do now! As my class has taught me, communication is powerful, so just as I have learned and am sharing the knowledge I gained from the Archelon Turtle Protection Society, I hope others will too.