Turtle researchers are not working alone to save turtles. There are many non profit environmental groups working to protect these animals, and most of them are just a mouse click away. The Caribbean Conservation Corporation and Sea Turtle Survival League is one of the best sea turtle organizations in the world. Founded by Archie Carr, it works to enact laws to protect sea turtles and provide sanctuaries for them. It also leads to turtle research in Costa Rica and Florida.Among the group’s many programs is one that a school class could become involved in: The Adopt-a–Turtle program. Your class could hold a fund-raising event with the proceeds going as a donation to the CCC. For this donation, your class will get a membership card and a sea turtle conservation guide and you are entitled to adopt and name a turtle.

CCC researchers tag the turtle with the name you select for it at their research station in Costa Rica. With a “Name your own Turtle Adoption,” you are the only person to adopt that turtle. You are also notified when, or if, researchers spot your turtle again. CCC members can also follow a sea turtle on its migrations on the web. Some named turtles have small satellite transmitters attached to the backs of their shells. By logging onto the site, you can track turtles as they move from foraging grounds to nesting sites.

The watamu Turtle watch ( WTW), in Kenya, Africa, also allows you to adopt green sea turtles through a small donation. This conservation group offers adoptions for turtles just released from local fishing nets. You can even adopt an entire sea turtle nest. The WTW was formed in 1997 to continue the efforts begun in the 1970’s by a local naturalist to conserve marine turtles in the Watamu Marine Park and along the northern shores of a creek.

In most Folklore Turtles are seen in a positive way. They are sometimes seen to be protectors of people and are often linked to stories about the creation of the world. Many North American Aboriginal peoples explain the beginning of the world with stories involving a turtle. Some even call North America “Turtle Island”. One of the most familiar stories about a turtle is Aesop’s fable about a tortoise and a hare. In this story, the quick-footed hare learns that sometimes “slow and steady wins the race”.

Turtle Tales

Sea turtles can be found off the coast of many countries around the world. The turtle appears in the tales and beliefs of many different cultures. One folktale from Papua, New Guinea explains how that island was created by a sea turtle. The turtle wanted somewhere to rest when she grew tired of swimming. She brought rocks and sand to build a hill in the ocean. When she was getting the rocks, she found a man living alone in a cave beneath the sea. He wanted a wife and a family. The turtle took him to her island. Then she swam across the sea to another island and found a woman who wanted a husband. The turtle brought her to the island to live with the man. The couple raised a family, and they eventually populated the whole island.

There is a Hawaiian legend about a young turtle named Kauila whose parents were two supernatural turtles. Kauila could become a human girl and then turn back into a turtle. She would change into a girl to play with children and then return to a turtle to an underwater spring to sleep. When she returned to her spring, she would become a turtle again. Kauila protected the village children from drowning and her spring gave them fresh water.

A fable from Papua, New Guinea explains how sea turtles got their shells and why they live in the sea. A turtle was found eating chiefs bananas. The villagers decided to eat the turtle and tied him upside down in a large wooded dish. The turtle escaped into the sea, with the dish still tied to his back. Since then, turtles have had shells on their backs, lived in the sea, and never eaten bananas.
A fable from Fiji explains a custom of women calling turtles from the sea. The legend describes two women kidnapped by the people of another village. As the women were being taken away in canoes, they changed into sea turtles, and their kidnappers became frightened and threw them overboard. The sea turtles are said to be the relatives of those two captive women. The woman of their village still chant a song above the water, and the sea turtles rise to hear the song.

The Olive Ridley Sea Turtle is about the same size as the Kemps ridley. It is the most abundant Seas turtle and ranges over the tropical Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans. That does not meant that they are not in danger; there is still a serious and quick decline in numbers as time goes by.

As you may have already guessed, this turtle, like the others is so named for a reason. It is named for the olive color of its unique heart shaped shell. These turtles average about 100 pounds and have a carapace length of just 27 inches. The carapace is a dark olive green and the underside is yellow. The biggest and more obvious difference between this turtle and the Kemps Ridley is the number of coastal scutes on the upper shell.

The Olive turtle is an omnivore; it eats crustaceans’, mollusks, algae, and tunicates. It will typically lay around 110 eggs, which take about 50 to 60 days to incubate. Olive ridleys also nest in massive aggregations. These are known as arribadas. The Kemps Ridley turtle also share this nesting habit. Olive Ridleys are very widely distributed, and they are not in nearly as bad a condition as the Kemps Ridley.

This is the most common species of nesting turtles on Florida beaches. Florida alone has close to 90 percent of the nesting’s in the U.S. Loggerheads also nest farther up north than any other turtle species, there was even a record of a loggerhead nesting as far out as Ocean City, New Jersey!
The loggerhead is, not surprisingly, named for its large head. The loggerheads head may be up to ten inches across. This large head is due to its heavy jaw musculature and its hard shelled diet, which includes clams, conch, barnacles and other mollusks. They also eat crabs, shrimp, jellyfish, and sea grasses.

The loggerhead turtle is the second largest of the sea turtle species. Its shell usually has a length of 34 to 49 inches ( 86 to 124 centimeters). The loggerhead has a reddish brown shell and it is distinctive in that it has five or more costal plates on each side of the neurals. The underside (plastron) is yellow. Two pairs of large scales are located on top of the head between the eyes and the nostrils. Each of the loggerheads forelimbs has two claws. The male has a much longer tail which enables him to grasp the female during mating.

Loggerhead turtles mature between the ages of 20 and 30 years. The adults rarely weigh more than 350 pounds, although there are reports of giants weighing up to 500 pounds. Loggerhead turtles are believed to be capable of reproducing for as long as 30 years. Loggerhead nesting begins in the spring, extending from late April to September. An average clutch consists of about 100 eggs. The eggs will incubate for about 60 days before producing two inch long hatchlings that weigh only 3/5 of an ounce.

The loggerhead turtle is also distinct for a particularly unpleasant matter. Unlike other sea turtles, which are known to be gentle, loggerheads have been known to turn nasty when disturbed. A story in 1905 told of two men in a rowboat who tried to catch a 610 pound loggerhead. The angry turtle fought capture by using its flippers to nearly turn the boat on its side. It had also chewed the oars and tore at one mans arm. The turtle then swam away.

Now, you may probably have already guessed where this turtle got its name from. Well, it refers to the flatness of the turtle’s upper shell (carapace). The locals do not call it the flatback turtle, but instead Kikila. Flatback sea turtles are larger than the two Ridley turtles, although they are still small.
The flatback turtle has a yellow-gray or a green-gray colored oval shaped upper shell. The lower shell (plastron) is usually a pale yellow. The adults of this species typically weigh about 160 to 200 pounds. They usually measure 39 inches long. The flippers of the Flatback turtle have one obvious claw.

The flatback turtle only nests on beaches in Australia and is considered to be the most mysterious of all sea turtles. Little is known about what this species eats or the path of its migration from nesting to foraging grounds. There are about thirty thousand mature females alive today, and the Australian government is doing a good job of protecting its nesting beaches. However, the fact that this turtle lives in only one part of the ocean, rather than being spread around the globe, could make it more vulnerable to extinction.

The Flatback turtle fees mostly on sea cucumbers and crustaceans. It is also typically found in grassy shallow areas and coral reefs. Another amazing fact about this turtle is that the females will lay about 50 eggs at a time, and each egg is about the same size as that of the Leatherback! This means that the hatchlings are large, which is great because it means that they can avoid predators easier.