A HELPING HAND Imagine strolling along a moonlit beach the sky filled with stars Suddenly you see a dinosaur lumbering out of the sea With extraordinary concentration she uses her flippers to dig a massive nest in the sand This is how marine biologist Jose Urteaga describes a leatherback turtle arriving to lay eggs on the shore Jose works in Nicaragua Central America The area is home to five of the world’s seven sea turtle species Nearly all of the turtle species are threatened The leatherback turtle is critically endangered 4 CENTRAL AMERICA NICARAGUA Leatherback Sea Turtle
Jose and his team watch the 1,000-pound 6 5-foot-long 450-kilogram 2-meter-long turtle as she slowly scrapes in the sand They know that when she is satisfied with the nest she is digging she will lay her eggs The team is ready When the eggs start to come they catch the eggs with a plastic bag The eggs will be taken to an area that is safe from poachers Sometimes they are taken to a special hatchery set up for the turtles 5
Female leatherback turtles lay a clutch of 80 to 85 fertile eggs They might nest several times in one spring-summer season The hatchlings emerge during the night 55 to 75 days later Jose’s sea turtle conservation program on the Pacific coast is a combination of everything from science lessons to puppet shows Jose attempts to discourage people from poaching precious turtle eggs He also patrols all the nesting beaches to protect the endangered creatures Thanks to Jose’s work more than 90 percent of leatherback turtle nests on the Pacific coast are protected Before the project started nearly every egg laid was taken to sell for food 6
FIELD NOTES An animal is considered critically endangered when it is facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future Marine biologists are often involved in research and conservation of threatened and endangered marine animals and plants All sea turtles found in US waters are listed under the Endangered Species Act ESA Source NOAA green turtle hawksbill turtle Kemp's ridley turtle leatherback turtle loggerhead turtle olive ridley turtle 7
