Sea Turtles

EKONOMICKÁ UNIVERZITA V BRATISLAVE
FAKULTA MEDZINÁRODNÝCH VZŤAHOV













How the climate changes affect sea turtles
Essay















2012 Petra Rychtarčíková
Abstract

RYCHTARČÍKOVÁ, Petra: How the climate change affects sea turtles – University of Economics in Bratislava, Faculty of International Relations - Bratislava: FMV EU, 2012, 13p.The goal of this essay was describing of sea turtles and how the climate changes affect them. This work is divided into 2 chapters. The first one contains general description of the sea turtles, their species and the organizations dealing with this issue. The second chapter includes different problems in climate changes and their influence on sea turtle’s life. The result of the essay ischaracterization of sea turtles and emphasis on the problems with them.

Key words: sea turtles, species, global warming, sea level rise





















Contents

Introduction 1
1. General description and seven species 1
1.1 General description of sea turtles 1
1.2 Species 1
1.3 Organizations protecting and conserving sea turtles 1
2. Climate changes and seaturtles 1
2.1 Sea Level Rise - disappearance of beaches 1
2.2 Sea Level Rise – hotter sands 1
2.3 Global warming - erosion 1
2.4 Global warming – food resources 1
2.5 Global waming - loosing of swimming activity 1
2.6 Changing Currents 1
2.7 Ocean acidification 1
Conclusion 1
Bibliography 1
Appendix 1 1
Appendix 2 1

















IntroductionSea turtles have navigated the world’s oceans for about 200 million years. These ancient creatures saw the dinosaurs come, and they saw them go. Sea turtles are the most important indicators of the health of both ecosystems – the world’s marine and the coastal. Scientists believe that when sea turtles vanish from the planet, it will call attention on the general health of the planet and theability of humans to coexist with the diversity of life on Earth.
Nowadays there are only seven species of sea turtles and six of them are endangered and one is listed as threatened. The natural obstacles faced by young and adult sea turtles are staggering; only an estimated one in 1,000 to 10,000 will survive to adulthood. The year 2011 was proclaimed as year of turtles.1. General description and seven species



1.1 General description of sea turtles

Each species of sea turtle looks and behaves distinctly, but they have several common characteristics. Sea turtles are large, air-breathing reptiles. They inhabit tropical and subtropical seas throughout the world (For example Mexico, Costa Rica, PuertoRico, Nicaragua, Honduras, Venezuela, Unites states, Gulf of Guinea, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, Arabian sea, India, Indonesia, Japan, Australia).
They don’t have teeth, don’t have visible ears (because are covered by skin), they hear best at low frequencies and sense of smell is excellent. Their vision underwater is good, but they are nearsighted out of water.[1]
Females must comeashore to lay their eggs in the sand; therefore, all sea turtles begin their lives as tiny hatchlings on land.[2] Only females come ashore to nest. Males rarely return to land after crawling into the sea as hatchlings. Most females return to nest on the beach where they were born (natal beach). Nesting seasons occur at different times around the world. Nesting season is from March throughOctober on the Atlantic coast and from May through October on the Gulf coast.[3] Most females nest at least twice during season; some may nest up to ten times in a season. A female will not nest in consecutive years, typically skipping one or two years before returning. It is theorized that baby turtles spend their earliest years floating around the sea in giant beds of sargasso weeds. They grow...