Boardom: Environment

Boardom_Wave_Logo.GIF (12528 bytes)
The thrill is in the ride

What's New	Planet Earth - Boarding America's Environmental Efforts A little known fact is that the first "boarders" on the planet were sea turtles who "bodysurfed" the waves. These same turtles - among the first species to inhabit earth - are facing extinction because of man. For that reason, Boarding America has adopted the sea turtle and other endangered sea life as our environmental symbol of hope and survival.	Environment Plight Of The Sea Turtle by Dr. Douglas Mader DVM (first in a series) The sea turtle, a member of the class reptilia, order chelonia, is one of the oldest living reptiles on the earth. Among the reptiles, the turtles are the only group that extends back, unchanged, to the Carboniferous period, the age of the dinosaurs. Until the 1700's the six species of sea turtles including the Loggerhead, Hawksbill, Green, Kemp and Olive Ridleys and the Leatherback have lived in harmony with the sea. Sea turtles were hunted for their shells and meat. Originally, coastal inhabitants used the turtles-their meat and eggs as food, their shells for tools and decorations, their skin for leather. With the primitive hunting techniques being used the turtle populations were not at risk. The dawn of the commercial turtling industry posed an entirely new threat-these peaceful animals fell prey to nets and decoys, and could no longer compete with man's advancing technology.
Who's Hot
Hot Pics
Events
Chic Chat
Silver Surfers
Surf Camps
Join Boardom
Environment
Calendar
Bodyboarding
Home

	On top of this attack from the sea, man began squeezing the animals off terra firma (land). The quest for sun and sea has driven the human populations to the coasts, both for recreation and habitation. Homes, hotels and resorts are competing with the nesting sites of these turtles, making it difficult for the pregnant females to find vanishing beaches to deposit and incubate their eggs. In many countries, the eggs are harvested and eaten as a delicacy. Of those eggs that do manage to hatch, only one in one hundred hatchlings will survive to reproductive age. Young, growing sea turtles are easy prey to sea birds, crabs, fish and any of the larger carnivores on the food chain. As adults, sharks are their only natural predator. Once again, enter man. In 1970 the endangered species act added the Leatherback to its protested species list. It guardians against commercial exploitation, but unfortunately it has no control over "accidental" interactions. Currently the biggest man-made dangers to the sea turtles are the fishing and shrimp industries. Trap ropes, fishing lines and nets all pose a threat to the sea turtles. Animals are caught-up in the ropes and lose flippers, swallow nylon fishing lines and rupture their intestines and get tangled in the nets and drown. Running a close second in this massacre is the recreational craft. Boat and propeller injuries claim lives on a weekly basis. A spin-off of the ever-increasing use and congestion of the coastal waterways is the contamination of the environment. Trash, pollution and toxins threaten the animals on a daily basis. Ingestion of foreign matter, such as plastic trash bags (which to a sea turtle looks like a floating jelly-fish), is a frequent killer. On top of these threats emerges a new danger, this time from Mother Nature herself. Although first documented in the early 1940's, it was only recently realized that a new scourge is threatening the existence of the entire population of sea turtles...a virus. The majestic sea turtle has been around for 200 million years. Suddenly, the numbers are diminishing to the point where many are either endangered or threatened. Extinction is permanent. There are no second chances.