Where can i see leatherback turtles

Instead of heading to sea, they head toward the lights. Another hazard for sea turtles is floating plastic trash, which they often mistake for jellyfish , their main food. Leatherbacks must breathe air at the surface, but can stay underwater for up to 35 minutes at a time. Only females ever leave the ocean. During nesting season, the female comes ashore on a sandy beach, where she digs a hole.

She lays about eggs in the hole, covers them with sand, and heads back to sea. Sea turtles do not guard their nests, so the babies are on their own. The eggs take about two months to hatch. The tiny hatchlings are only 2 to 3 inches 5 to 8 centimeters long.

As soon as they hatch, they dig their way out of the sandy nest and scurry across the beach to the sea. Gulls and other birds often scoop up the hatchlings before they make it to the water. Leatherback turtles are oceanic and are rarely found close to shore in Australia. Leatherback turtles feed and occasionally nest within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park with nesting recorded at Wreck Rock and adjacent beaches near Bundaberg.

There is sporadic nesting at other widely scattered sites in Queensland. Leatherback turtles nesting in Queensland probably represent strays at the extremes of their ranges, with the survival of the foraging population in eastern Queensland dependent upon the larger, but declining, nesting populations in neighbouring countries.

Leatherback turtles are most commonly found in temperate waters feeding primarily on macroplankton jellyfish, salps. Foraging leatherbacks have been recorded as far south as Bass Strait and through the Gulf of Carpentaria. No large leatherback turtle rookeries occur in Australia. Most leatherback turtles living in Australian waters are presumed to migrate to breed in neighbouring countries, particularly Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Leatherbacks have downward-pointing spines in their throat, which allows jellyfish to be swallowed, but prevents them from coming back up.

The migratory and pelagic lifestyle of the leatherback turtle makes it extremely difficult to investigate the ecology of this species at sea, which in turn hinders the conservation of this reptile at a global scale. The majority of our knowledge on the leatherback turtle comes from studying them during their reproductive phase when females migrate to tropical areas where they ascend onto beaches to nest. Adult leatherbacks have few natural predators, but their eggs and newborns are preyed upon by many animals, including birds , raccoons , and crabs.

Female leatherbacks tend to return to the same nesting area to lay their eggs. Their large size makes them opportunistic in selecting a nesting beach.

Likewise, if temperatures are cooler, males develop. Leatherbacks reach maturity at approximately 16 years old. Leatherback sea turtles are federally listed as endangered.

Their biggest threats are the result of human activity. Clutches of eggs are often illegally poached, and the offspring that do hatch sometimes become attracted to beach resort lighting, so they crawl away from the sea instead of toward it. Adults are also victims of poaching, as well as entanglement in fishing gear. They are also susceptible to marine pollution and debris, sometimes ingesting plastic marine litter. Climate change is major threat as well. Beach erosion caused by increased storm frequency and intensity is a major threat to nest success.

Warming temperatures are a concern for the long-term reproductive success of the leatherback population. Temperature increases could lead to a greater prevalence in feminizing beaches, The identification of existing male-producing beaches will be of critical importance to population viability. Another threat related to climate change is the thermal expansion of oceans. Sea level rise could impact nesting beaches even sooner than changes in ambient temperatures.

Leatherbacks have been documented diving deeper than 4, feet 1, meters.