November 10, 2008
Death Valley Wildflower Extravaganza
I finally posted some of my shots from an amazing wildflower season in Death Valley National Park. You can see more pictures from this trip on my FLICKR set: Death Valley Wildflowers
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October 24, 2008
Loggerhead Turtles At Loggerheads With Fishing Industry
Sea turtles can be found all over the world, and yet all sea turtle species are on the endangered species listing. The loggerhead turtle is among these.
In the Pacific, loggerhead turtles are born on the beaches of Japan. The baby turtles hatch from their shells at night, in hopes of avoiding being spotted by a predator and being eaten. They make their way toward to ocean, navigating by light. In the past, this the brighest light at night was the sea itself, but manmade lights can now disrupt and confuse these little turtles. Only a portion of the babies make it down the sand and into the ocean.
Where scientists, who've mounted tracking devices on these little guys, now know that the turtles swim almost 10,000 miles to Baja, California. Here the turtles stay for decades, eating and growing. Finally, once they've matured, they start the long trek back to the beaches of Japan.
Along the way, they find mates. In fact, the loggerhead is the only marine turtle to mate along the way to the breeding ground instead of at the destination. One might hope that this would give the loggerhead turtle an advantage-a larger mating ground less likely to cause problems-but the loggerhead turtles must navigate through the fishing-industry-infested waters.
Now a new study from my Alma mater the University of California Santa Cruz has found that the number of nesting turtles on the shores of Japan has declined by 50 to 80 percent over the past decade. The study determined that many loggerhead turtles are never leaving their feeding grounds in Baja, but instead are washing up dead due to tangled fishing nets and lines.
Along the southern coast of Baja California, Mexico, scientists have been counting the carcasses of endangered sea turtles for a decade as part of an effort to assess and eliminate threats to loggerhead sea turtle populations. Their findings, published this week, are shocking: almost 3,000 sea turtles were found dead along a 27-mile stretch of coast during a five-year period from 2003 to 2007.
Led by Hoyt Peckham, a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the study underscores the enormous impact of bycatch (marine life accidentally killed by fishing operations) on sea turtles. Bycatch and, to a lesser degree, poaching are both significant threats to the survival of the endangered Pacific loggerhead sea turtle population, Peckham said.
Read More at: UC Santa Cruz: Study finds high mortality of endangered loggerhead sea turtles in Baja California
The study has given us solid proof that sea turtles like the loggerhead require more conservation actions. Their habitat needs protecting and the fishing industry-while vital-needs reform when it comes to best practices.
Photograph Note: This is actually a Hawaiian Green Sea turtle, as I've not had the opportunity to take photos of the North Pacific loggerhead. Hopefully, I'll get the chance someday.
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October 23, 2008
It's Getting Chilly
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