Large number of leather back rare turtle nests spotted after two decades

20 April 2020

 Introduction:

 Large number of nests of rare leatherback sea turtles were spotted in the now-empty beaches of Thailand amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Highlights:

• Rare turtles have made a comeback after two decades.
• 11 turtles nested first time in twenty years.
•  Leatherback is the largest sea turtles, endangered in Thailand.
•  Listed as vulnerable by IUCN.
• This is a very good sign for because many areas for spawning have been destroyed by humans
• Turtles have a high risk of getting killed by fishing gear and humans disturbing the beach.

About Leather Back Turtles:

• The leatherback sea turtle, sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the luth, is the largest of all living turtles and is the fourth-heaviest modern reptile behind three crocodilians.
•  It is the only living species in the genus Dermochelys and family Dermochelyidae.
• It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell, hence the name. Instead, its carapace is covered by skin and oily flesh.
• They are the largest sea turtle species and also one of the most migratory, crossing both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
• Pacific leatherbacks migrate from nesting beaches in the Coral Triangle all the way to the California coast to feed on the abundant jellyfish every summer and fall.
• Although their distribution is wide, numbers of leatherback turtles have seriously declined during the last century as a result of intense egg collection and fisheries bycatch.