There are many endangered species in the world among these species is the Eretmochelys imbricata, commonly known as the Hawksbill Sea Turtle. The Hawksbill Sea Turtle has a lifespan of about 30 to 50 years. The turtle is an omnivore and consumes sea grasses, sea urchins, barnacles, small animals, and their favorite food, sponges (National Wildlife Federation). Regardless of their lifespan and diet, these turtles are dying quicker than normal because of the human race. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Hawksbill Sea Turtle is classified as critically endangered (Plos One).
This means that the turtle has become especially susceptible to extinction worldwide. The Hawksbill Sea Turtle is found in the tropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Nevertheless, this sea turtle stays away from deep waters and would rather stay near the coastlines where sponges and nesting sites are close by (National Geographic). This way they are able to find the food they eat and can be close to their nesting areas. This makes the turtle especially susceptible, due to the reasoning of mainly human impact (National Geographic).
We all can conclude that humans are the reason why this turtle is critically endangered. The eggs that the turtle has are eaten all around the world even though; they have an international protected status (National Geographic). The Hawksbill Sea Turtle’s eggs are being eaten and no one cares for the fact that they are not allowed to eat these eggs. Which is aggravating but if they go extinct, I hope there is a lesson learned. I honestly would prefer the human race to learn how to be respectful toward the Hawksbill Sea Turtle.
The turtle is also killed for their flesh and the shells that they have. Another threat the Hawksbill Sea Turtle deals with is fishing nets, which causes them to be accidently captured (National Geographic). At this point one needs to understand why the Hawksbill Sea Turtle became endangered, as well as understanding how the Hawksbill Sea Turtle is important to our environment, and how we can take action in preventing the Hawksbill Sea Turtle from becoming extinct. The endangerment of the Hawksbill Sea Turtle consists of several different reasons.
The Hawksbill Sea Turtle faces threats of direct and indirect overexploitation, development, habitat loss, an d oil spills. When it comes down to the direct and indirect overexploitation, the Hawksbill Sea Turtle is killed for the use of their shell for jewelry, ornaments, hair accessories and because of this it has become banned (National Wildlife Federation). The Hawksbill Sea Turtle is being hunted for their shells and the actual turtle is killed by humans and thrown off to the side. It is like using the ivory of an elephant and the carcass is left just laying around.
Then, the sea creatures deal with development consisting in degradation of the nesting sites. For, example because of the artificially lighting the baby turtles mistake it for the moonlight causing them to think it is their final destination. With this distraction, the baby Hawksbill Sea Turtle cannot make a dash to the water, which causes them to be susceptible to predators (National Wildlife Federation). The artificial lighting is like death row for the baby turtles and they do not have a big life span because of this.
Next, these sea turtles are losing their habitats, so their food supply is becoming limited due to the human race and global warming (National Wildlife Federation). Last of all, oil spills that occur cause the sea turtle to swim through the oil making it difficult for the turtle to breathe (National Wildlife Federation). The turtle faces more than these threats alone and it is because of the human race. The turtle becomes caught in gillnets and captured by fishing hooks on accident. If the sea turtle ends up in a net, the creature cannot swim to the top and dies due to drowning.
These turtles are threatened with the loss of their nesting sites and feeding habitats as well as, excessive egg collection (WorldWildlife. org). The main reason the Hawksbill Sea Turtle is coming to extinction is that the human race is not respectful to care. We are polluting the waters, hunting them, eating them, and we just act as if it is not a big deal. Although, we may be the major reason for them dying out but nature alone is harming the turtle as well. The Hawksbill Sea Turtle faces many threats that play key factors in harming their environment and especially their life.
Animals in which they live on the land or in the ocean, each one plays a key factor in keeping the environment clean. The Hawksbill Sea Turtle helps the ocean ecosystems by maintaining health seagrass beds and coral reefs, providing a life for other marine life, balancing the food webs and accelerating nutrient cycling from water to land (Oceana). With how helpful the ti is towards keeping the ocean clean it provides food for other living creatures in the ocean and eventually helps the land that other animals and people live on. The Hawksbill Sea Turtle has an impact on the coral reefs that are in the ocean.
The way the turtle’s beak-like mouth is formed, it can consume the sponges that are in or around the coral reef (Oceana). The turtle can reach the sponges that other creatures cannot and this is helpful because if the sponges would dominate the coral reefs causing damage to the coral reef ecosystem (Oceana). The turtle helps other fish by feeding them. On the shells, the turtle carries barnacles, algae and other similar organisms known as epibionts, providing food for a source of fish and shrimp. Other living organisms eat what the turtle has on their shell, which provides a cleaning station for the turtle (Oceana).
This helps the turtle by keeping their shell clean and the algae, barnacles, and the other organisms will not weigh the turtle down. The living organism epibionts found on the turtles shell creates a strict diet that is special to certain living organisms. Without this, shrimp and other fish have to find other ways that are not as successful (Oceana). One can read just how important the Hawksbill Sea Turtle helps the ocean ecosystems.
The Hawksbill Sea Turtle does not only help care for the oceans ecosystem but also takes are of beach dunes through the unhatched eggs. There are limited nutrients of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the dunes but with the unhatched turtle eggs, the dunes get these nutrients. Another way the nutrients are spread is through the feces of the predators that eat the turtle eggs (Oceana). With the spread of nutrients through the turtle eggs, the beach dunes get the nutrients that are needed. Without these creatures the clean environment for the oceans, some of the food we eat in the ocean and the nutrients on land would cause major damage.
The life of a turtle plays a vital role in maintaining the health of the ocean whether it is by grazing seagrass, controlling sponge distribution, feasting on jellyfish, transporting nutrients to support marine life (Oceana). Hawksbill Sea Turtles play an important role in our environment and it is our job to protect them. The Hawksbill Sea Turtle is especially endangered and it is our job as humans to care for this creature. The prevention methods are easy to follow. The World Wild Life foundation is working on switching to a safer fishing hook that is circular instead of jshaped hook (WorldWildlife. rg).
With the circular hook, this makes it safer for the turtle not to become caught on. Another, way the World Wild Life is helping by talking to anglers to help untangle the turtles from the fishing nets (Worldwildlife. org). If the anglers help untangle the turtle this can help just by a little bit by saving the turtles from drowning. There is Satellite telemetry to research the turtle’s movement (WorldWildlife. org). The anglers are not the only ones who should untangle the turtles from the fishing nets but if someone on the beach in general sees a turtle caught in a net.
There are tracking devices that help us learn the patterns of the Hawksbill Sea Turtle migration and nesting sites. There are international treaties and agreements as well as national laws that protect the Hawksbill Sea Turtle from illegal hunting (National Wildlife Federation). These laws prohibit people for hunting the turtles for their shells, for food, and even egg collecting. If we stay away from the turtle’s nesting site the turtles can repopulate quickly instead of dying. Then, the human society needs to leave the turtles alone and stop hunting them for their shells.
The best way we can help is keeping the ocean free from pollution, so the turtle has a clean and safe environment. By keeping the land clean, we can also keep the water clean if we make an effort to keep our land clean we can do the same for the ocean. It is rude and disgusting that we let the world we live on become filthy that we kill off such beautiful creatures. Another, way to help prevent the turtle from being hunted is to make sure that we do not buy souvenirs or items made out of the Hawksbill’s shell.
The Hawksbill Sea Turtle exists for a reason and we as a society should care for the creatures that exist. The society needs to take action in protecting the Hawksbill Sea Turtle and these are just a few ways to help prevent their extinction. The Hawksbill Sea Turtle is critically endangered and one needs to understand why, as well as, understanding how important the turtle is to the environment, and making sure to take the actions to prevent the Hawksbill Sea Turtle from going extinct. The human race needs to stand up and protect the wildlife. Rather than, acting as if we can do what we want when we please.
If we as a society will not protect the living creatures around us, we will die without them and we know it is true. Therefore, we should not be surprised and if we value our lives, we need to value the lives of the creatures like the Hawksbill Sea Turtle. After all, if we had a day to live the life of one of the many endangered species like the Hawksbill Sea Turtle I am sure we would be more respectful. For one major reason, we would understand how we are harming our ecosystems and ourselves in the future. The human society is corrupt and because of us, we are critically endangering the Hawksbill Sea Turtle.
