{"id":4862,"date":"2018-06-15T16:43:46","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T16:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/?p=4862"},"modified":"2018-08-30T20:24:26","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T20:24:26","slug":"tropical-sea-turtles-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/en\/tropical-sea-turtles-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Tropical Sea Turtles in Canada!?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laura Newman<\/a> is a participant in\u00a0Group 2<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0Canadian Conservation Corps<\/a>. She writes of her experience in her field learning placement.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s true! Every summer our waters are invaded by gentle giants from the south!<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know much about Leatherback Sea Turtles before getting to Halifax. But, in a short amount of time, I\u2019ve learned that they\u2019re pretty cool: they\u2019re huge, they\u2019re ancient and they\u2019re endangered.<\/p>\n

Leatherback sea turtles migrate up to Atlantic Canada in the summertime, all the way from South America. They don\u2019t have any teeth, but they have spikes in their esophagus that help them eat their favourite food \u2014 jellyfish! They can eat their weight in jellyfish everyday, and that\u2019s really saying something because the average adult Leatherback Sea Turtle<\/a> can weigh 450 kilograms!<\/p>\n

Getting to Know Leatherbacks<\/h3>\n
\"Laura
Laura with fellow Group 2 participant Colin Horton<\/a> at their phase 2 learning placement in Halifax. \u00a9 Robyn Murphy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We arrived in Halifax a couple of days ago, and were warmly welcomed by Kathleen, one of the founders of the Canadian Sea Turtle Network.<\/a>\u00a0We have already begun training at the Sea Turtle Centre, which is right downtown in the harbour. We have learned all kinds of interesting things.<\/p>\n

These turtles are extra cool because instead of having a scaly shell like most turtles, theirs is covered by a leathery skin. They can hold their breath for an hour, and they have been known to dive as deep as one kilometre underwater \u2014 deeper than any other sea turtle. They\u2019ve also been around for about 100,000,000 years!<\/p>\n

Leatherback Sea Turtles<\/a> are gentle giants who don\u2019t have much in the way of natural predators in the ocean. But one of their biggest threats as adults is getting caught up in fishing gear. This is why The Canadian Sea Turtle Network works closely with fishermen to help save these awesome creatures.<\/p>\n

How We Can Help<\/h3>\n
\"Leatherback
Leatherback turtle feeding on a jellyfish (PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of the things that we can do as individuals to help the sea turtles are to use less plastic<\/strong> and avoid plastic bags<\/a> \u2014 a lot of our plastic garbage ends up in the ocean, and sea turtles can\u2019t tell the difference between your old grocery bag and a nice, tasty jellyfish.<\/p>\n

Blow bubbles instead of balloons.<\/strong> Trust me, I love balloons as much as the next person, they\u2019re colourful and fun and they remind me of birthday parties! Eventually, though, they pop and then they land somewhere they don\u2019t belong \u2014 in waterways and oceans, just like plastic bags. Blowing bubbles instead is a harmless and fun alternative!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking forward to learning more as I continue with my placement!<\/p>\n

Like turtles? Learn more about turtles at HelpTheTurtles.ca<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Laura Newman is a participant in\u00a0Group 2\u00a0of the\u00a0Canadian Conservation Corps. She writes of her experience in her field learning placement. It\u2019s true! Every summer our waters are invaded by gentle…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":3368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[636,6,633],"tags":[705,1038,1004,687,134,703,136,620,555],"class_list":["post-4862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coasts-oceans","category-endangered-species","category-canadian-wildlife","tag-canadas-waters","tag-canadian-conservation-corps","tag-canadian-marine-animal-response-alliance","tag-cmara","tag-great-canadian-turtle-race","tag-help-the-turtles","tag-leatherback-sea-turtle","tag-marine-conservation","tag-turtles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4862"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4874,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4862\/revisions\/4874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}