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Facts about Sea Turtles

The Tampa Bay Tour of Turtles was developed with the goal of helping to educate people about marine turtles and the work done at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium to rescue, rehabilitate and release them.

The Marine Turtle Program at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium is a two-fold program involving the protection of marine turtles nesting on the beach as well as the rehabilitation of sick and injured marine turtles. Each summer from late May through August, marine turtles come ashore to deposit clutches of eggs on the barrier islands throughout Florida. In Pinellas County the responsibility for monitoring and protecting these endangered creatures has been the responsibility of the staff biologists at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

The explosion of coastal development along the shoreline of Florida has created serious threats to the loggerhead, green, and leatherback sea turtles. Coastal development affects marine turtles in many different ways. Development results in loss of habitat directly through erosion, and loss of habitat indirectly through artificial lighting. The affect of artificial lighting on marine turtles is well understood and well documented, however the impact of artificial lighting many times is not observed. This is because many females simply do not nest on heavily lit beaches, choosing to try and find more suitable locations. Those females, who do deposit their eggs on heavily populated beaches, leave their nests and hatchlings to the destruction and disorientation that is associated with heavy development.

It is the job of staff at CMA to ensure that the nests that are placed on our beaches are well protected from any threats that may occur. Our biggest job comes trying to ensure that hatchlings that do emerge make it safely to the water. Since most hatchlings emerge at night (they do this to avoid predators and the heat of the day) they must have some way of finding the ocean. They do this by looking for the brightest horizon, which a natural setting would lead them to the water. With all of the artificial lighting associated with coastal development, hatchlings become disoriented and end up in roads and parking garages.

To countermand the impact of artificial lighting, the staff at CMA place restraining cages over nests to ensure that the hatchlings do not escape and become disoriented. Each night from July until October, biologists from CMA work throughout the night ensuring that the thousands of hatchlings produced on Pinellas Counties beaches make it safely to the water.

The second component of the Marine turtle program involves the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of marine turtles. CMA has received animals from as far away as New England and regularly receives animals from the East Coast of Florida. Many of the turtles that come into the Aquarium are suffering from boating injuries, entanglements in fishing gear, and from various viral and bacterial infections.

During an average year the aquarium will respond to over 100 live turtle strandings in addition to various dead strandings. Seventy percent of the live animals that come into our facility end up being released; however, many sustain injuries that result in an inability to survive in the wild. These so-called permanent residents are given a home at the aquarium.

In general all species face a variety of threats to their existence, all because of man. All species of turtles nest on beaches, a favorite place for man as well. The conflict has resulted in the current endangered status of all species of marine turtles. Because most turtle's nest at night and their hatchlings emerge at night, development on beaches has resulted in thousands of hatchling deaths due to disorientation.

The essential loss of habitat has brought many species like the green turtle to near extinction. In addition many species like the green, leatherback, and kemp's riley are prized for their food value, and are regularly slaughtered on nesting beaches. Leatherbacks are prized for rich oil that is found throughout their body. The final threat to marine turtles is from the fishing and shrimping industries.

Turtles are regularly caught in shrimp trawls, where they drowned, unable to reach the surface to breath. Efforts to curtail this threat with the use of turtle excluder devices have been met with great resistance from the shrimping industry. In addition to shrimping, the long line fishery for swordfish and tuna has nearly caused the extinction of the leatherback sea turtle. This practice also regularly entangles loggerhead sea turtles in the Pacific, Atlantic and Mediterranean Oceans.

Overall the marine turtle continues to hang on; and, with increased protection, will remain an important part of the worlds ocean ecosystems.

The Clearwater Marine Aquarium primarily cares for five species of marine turtles (Click on each one to learn more):