When brainstorming what to do for the thirtieth episode of the podcast, I thought about some of the topics that we had already covered. We’ve talked about dolphin research, manta rays, living underwater, nudibranchs, jellyfish, sustainable living, shellfish…
The list is really quite extensive.
What I realized, however, is while we’ve covered these topics, we’ve never done a really deep dive into any of them. While we’re learning about jellyfish, for example, we were also learning a bit about corals or about the researchers who studied them.
While it’s wonderful to cover such a range of subjects, I felt like we barely made a ripple on the surface, that there are leagues of information that we’ve left untouched.
What seemed to be missing is a deep dive into one topic. An entire episode dedicated to one specific marine biology related topic so that we could at least get down to a little bit of depth.
So, for episode 30, we’re doing something a little different. Today, we’re chatting sea turtles.
Why sea turtles?
While it’s not exactly where I got my start as a marine biologist, the sea turtle work that I was a part of during my undergrad, and the people that I met during that time, have had a lasting impact on my career. And it seemed like a logical place to start. Also, yesterday was World Sea Turtle Day, so that also seemed like a perfect fit.
In this episode, join my friend and fellow marine biologist, Laurie, and I as we dive into the world of these seafaring reptiles.
Laurie also shares a poem that will speak to any field biologist’s heart, aspiring or already entrenched.
If you enjoyed this deeper dive, let me know in the comments below or over at hello@marinebio.life. If there’s a specific topic that you’d like to cover, I want to hear what it is!
Quick Links
Gumbo Limbo Nature Center
Episode 4 with Boris Tezak
NRDA project for Deep horizon
MOCNESS
Leatherback
Loggerhead
Green
Hawksbill
Flatback
Olive ridley
Kemp’s ridley
Conch shell
Cayman Island Turtle Farms
Indian River Lagoon
Doc Erhardt
Aerial footage of Kemp’s
Turtle Excluder Devices (TED)
Longlining
Voyage of the Turtle by Carl Safina
3 week old hatchling with microplastics
Persistent and Bioaccumulative Toxins (PBT)
Unpaper towel
Dr. Wallace J. Nichols
Blue Mind
The School for Field Studies https://fieldstudies.org/
Show Notes
1:45 learn what my sea turtle volunteering looked like during my undergrad
5:15 poem written by a field biologist while working offshore about feeling contentment and happiness in her job.The poem brings you into the moment sailing offshore during a Gulf of Mexico sunset.
9:15 the seven types of sea turtles found worldwide and our personal favorites (though they’re all awesome!)
12:45 All about the biggest sea turtle in the world: the leatherbacks.
15:05 About the loggerhead sea turtle
18:30 Different behaviors between loggerhead, green, and leatherback hatchlings
20:15 about sea turtle nesting and life cycle
24:05 why we see turtles cry when they’re on the beach and how big the “small” sea turtles really are
30:15 what a job as a field sea turtle biologist can look like
34:15 fun facts that we didn’t know about sea turtles: different foraging grounds for green sea turtles, how merchants used to capture sea turtles in the 1800s, the surprising leatherback range, Christopher Columbus’s Cayman discovery and what the turtle populations looked like. We also talk about a strange leatherback behavior patterns, trace metal studies in Green turtles
44:50 Threats that sea turtles face worldwide, solutions that have been implemented and what you can do to help. First up: turtle excluder devices (TEDs) which helped to significantly reduce the amount of turtle bycatch by commercial fishermen who use nets. Important highlight: this did take a piece of legislation to become law, which means that representatives had to care in order to protect the turtles.
53:05 plastic pollution and sea turtles: hatchlings are now being found with ingested plastics. 80% of marine debris comes from land-based sources, and it’s a place to start to reduce our plastic consumption.
- 12.7 million tons of plastic go into the ocean annually
- 320 million tons since 1950
- Every piece of plastic we’ve ever produced is still here today
1:07:15 impacts of climate change on sea turtles
1:12:00 lessons Laurie learned during a course with Dr. Wallace J. Nichols. 3 principles:
- what we put into the ocean
- what we take out of the ocean
- coastal destruction