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Loggerhead Sea Turtle Research Paper

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Loggerhead sea turtles face many dangers including artificial lights, which contribute to their endangerment. The most prevalent way loggerhead sea turtles are being threatened is by human interaction. Humans turn on lights by the beach at night sometimes in turtle nesting season, and this can influence female turtles to avoid the beach, where they need to lay their eggs. (“Please turn your lights off, the turtles are nesting: ensuring that federal, state, and local laws help guide endangered marine turtle hatchlings in Florida to the right source of light”). However, there are some actions humans can take to help prevent endangerment of sea turtle hatchlings. The first area that must be noted is the fact that sea turtle hatchlings and females have many natural predators that already put their lives at risk without humans already getting involved. (“Sea Turtles”) Some of those predators include ghost crabs, foxes, and raccoons. These predators willingly eat sea turtle hatchlings as they rush to the sea. With this threat alone, only a small amount of hatchlings …show more content…

(“Origin of immature loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) at Hutchinson Island, Florida: evidence from mtDNA markers”) One particular female was unable to find a darkened beach. The loggerhead in question was named Sadie, and swam for miles with her eggs, unable to find a dark enough beach. She fractured her plastron in the process and was given treatment. Eventually she did lay eggs and they were taken out to the nearest beach, but unfortunately the eggs never hatched. (“ Please turn your lights off, the turtles are nesting: ensuring that federal, state, and local laws help guide endangered marine turtle hatchlings in Florida to the right source of light”). In this way, lighted beaches are not just a danger to sea turtle hatchlings, but also the

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