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Researchers hope epic journey will boost efforts to save the species
BANGKOK, Thailand - Scientists tracked a leatherback turtle that swam from Indonesia to Oregon and back to Hawaii in an epic 13,000-mile search for food — research they hope will boost international efforts to save the endangered species.
Leatherbacks, which can grow up to 9 feet in length, have roamed the oceans for 100 million years. But researchers at the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service in California say commercial fishing presents too many dangers for the globe-trotting sea turtles, which face extinction if no action is taken.
"Migrations of this magnitude expose animals to a multitude of risks from fisheries on the high seas," Scott Benson and Peter Dutton, scientists with the service, co-wrote in a paper last month in the peer-reviewed Chelonian Conservation and Biology.
The leatherback is the world's most endangered sea turtle. In a telephone interview Friday, Benson estimated that less than 5,000 adult females now live in the Pacific region. Males cannot be easily counted because they do not come ashore. Conservationists estimate the breed could become extinct within 30 years.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23067785/
BANGKOK, Thailand - Scientists tracked a leatherback turtle that swam from Indonesia to Oregon and back to Hawaii in an epic 13,000-mile search for food — research they hope will boost international efforts to save the endangered species.
Leatherbacks, which can grow up to 9 feet in length, have roamed the oceans for 100 million years. But researchers at the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service in California say commercial fishing presents too many dangers for the globe-trotting sea turtles, which face extinction if no action is taken.
"Migrations of this magnitude expose animals to a multitude of risks from fisheries on the high seas," Scott Benson and Peter Dutton, scientists with the service, co-wrote in a paper last month in the peer-reviewed Chelonian Conservation and Biology.
The leatherback is the world's most endangered sea turtle. In a telephone interview Friday, Benson estimated that less than 5,000 adult females now live in the Pacific region. Males cannot be easily counted because they do not come ashore. Conservationists estimate the breed could become extinct within 30 years.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23067785/
