Current Events: November 19, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/science/earth/14turtles.html?_r=1&ref=earth

PLAYA GRANDE, Costa Rica — This resort town was long known for Leatherback Sea Turtle National Park, nightly turtle beach tours and even a sea turtle museum. So Kaja Michelson, a Swedish tourist, arrived with high expectations. “Of course we’re hoping to see turtles — that is part of the appeal,” she said.

Leatherback turtles have slowly been having their population decrease due to a few climatic factors such as global warming and higher seas. The biggest factor here is that the rise in temperature is a huge problem. Turtles are not genetically given their sex, but their sex depends on the temperature. The high temperature will give the turtle population more females which is an obvious problem. The turtles can be considered an indicator species in this case as well because they need the climate in order to live their lives. What i think should be done is to have a turtle farm that can increase the amount of turtles so the population can recuperate from its near extinction numbers. The turtles have been here for many years and shouldn't have their population end because of global warming.