Cameron Delfino, Stanlick School
Morris County
Atlantic green sea turtle. Morris County. Cameron Delfino
The Atlantic Green Sea Turtle
The name is Mydas. c. mydas to be exact. I am an Atlantic Green Sea Turtle, and I need your help. My family and I are dying out. Day after day my family loses someone we love dearly. Oh please help us!
We live in the sea. We are often seen in warmer parts like the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware Bay. We live in all of the oceans except the Arctic Ocean. We like our sun. In fact, we go on the beach to warm ourselves. We get made fun of but at least we always have a tan. I always make sure my kids and I have sun block on because we don't want sunburn on our colorfully designed, smooth, brown shells. We also put it on our exposed soft bodies. We want to keep that beautiful green!
We Atlantic Green Sea Turtles weigh on the heavy side. 200-300 pounds! If you see us, we may have lumps on our bodies or shells. This is a disease called Fiboropapillomatosis disease. This is one thing that is causing us to die out. We can't stop these from coming and we don't know what to do!
We live in the sea. We are often seen in warmer parts like the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware Bay. Females usually go to the beach where they were born and lay their eggs.
We sea turtles are herbivores. That means that we eat only plants. We mainly eat the marine algae and sea grasses. It tastes so good! We turtles are living the life! Oooh. I'm starting to get hungry talking about it!
We sea turtles hit maturity at about 20-50 years old. We meet our special ladies in March and mate with them once we get to know them. Our ladies nest in May, June, July, August, and early September. Females usually go to the beach where they were born and lay their eggs. They lay about 135 eggs and the hatchlings hatch in about two months.
We are threatened and are on the line of becoming endangered. We get entangled in fishing gear and we can't come up for air. When there are oil spills or ocean pollution, we get hurt really bad. The beach front lights confuse the hatchlings and they never make it to the sea. Even sometimes we get directly killed for no good reason. Hatchlings are trampled while they are still in their eggs. Sometimes we have collisions with boats, and humans intentionally attack us. We can’t catch a break!
What are you doing to help? Well right now you're reading this. That is great. So, go clean the beaches. Turn off beach front lights when they aren't being used. Be sure to look for nesting area warning signs. Scientists are already looking for cures for Fiboropapillomatosis and people are trying to protect beaches. What will you do to protect my family?
Written by: Cameron Delfino
Stanlick School
Teacher: Mrs. McLoughlin