Pacific and Atlantic Leatherback Turtle Habitats Are in North America

Summary: Pacific and Atlantic leatherback turtle habitats are in North America, whose beaches are nestable and whose shallow waters abound with assailable prey.

leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) at nesting site, Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge; Sandy Point NWR was established in 1984 specifically to protect leatherback nesting habitat; southwestern St. Croix, US Virgin Islands; Thursday, June 16, 2011, photo by Claudia Lombard, USFWS: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region (USFWS/Southeast), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Pacific and Atlantic leatherback turtle habitats are in North America, whose beaches are nestable and whose waters abound with assailable prey, Florida through Newfoundland, Florida through Caribbean America, California through British Columbia.

Leatherback turtles bear their species common name because of smooth upper-shells (carapaces) of small bony plaques mosaically patterned into leathery, strong skin without horned scutes (plates). They claim subspecies common names, Atlantic and Pacific leatherback turtles, and species and two subspecies scientific names, Dermochelys coriacea, Dermochelys coriacea coriacea and Dermochelys coriacea schlegelii. Domenico Vandelli (July 8, 1735-June 27, 1816) scientifically designated leatherback turtlebacks Testudo coriacea (from Latin testudo, “tortoise, turtle” and coriācea, from corium, “leather” and -āceus, “resembling”).

Pacific and Atlantic leatherback turtle life cycles expect clean, dark, quiet offshore breeding waters and nesting beaches without plastic bags and other floating or littered trash.

February through August and sometimes November through January function as nesting months even as April through July fit the most nests into leatherback turtle life cycles.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature gives Pacific and Atlantic leatherback turtles critically endangered status even as leatherbacks get the world's largest living turtle ranking. Leatherback turtles hasten between the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the Atlantic and the Mediterranean because of paddlelike limbs and long, backward-projecting spine-lined mouths and esophaguses. Belching, biting, groaning mouthparts and big, clawless, heavy, flailing flippers intimidate predators other than net fisherman, marine boat and ship operators, egg collectors and cosmetic oil-makers.

Climate change, egg and turtle harvests, fishing-gear bycatch, nesting-habitat degradation and loss, ocean pollution, off-shore drilling and vessel strikes jeopardize Pacific and Atlantic leatherback turtle habitats.

Pacific and Atlantic leatherback turtles keep Dermochelydidae leatherback turtle family habits of mating between 9 p.m. and midnight and nesting in mothers-to-be's birth waters and beaches.

Females lay 10 days apart 2 to 3 seasonal clutches of 50 to 170 spherical eggs 2 to 2.5 inches (51 to 63 millimeters) in diameter. Leatherback turtle hatchlings move out of their shells within 3-foot- (1-meter-) deep nest cavities within 50 to 8 days maximally and 60 to 65 days optimally. Algae, kelp, sea grasses and amphipod crustaceans, bivalves, crabs, fish, hydrozoans, jellyfish, octopi, sea urchins, snails, squid and tunicates nourish omnivorous Pacific and Atlantic leatherback turtles.

Pacific and Atlantic leatherback turtle habitats offer season-coldest coastal temperature ranges that never obstruct their core body temperatures in diving, feeding, nesting, resting and swimming sites.

Core body temperature ranges between 25 and 27 degrees Celsius (77 and 81 degrees Fahrenheit) prevent Pacific and Atlantic leatherback turtles perishing from overcooling or overheating.

Fifty- to 84-inch (127- to 215-centimeter) and 600- to 1,600-pound (273- to 727-kilogram) total lengths and weights queue up for physically and sexually mature leatherback turtles. Elongated, triangular slate to blue-black upper-shells retain seven prominent keels (ridges) and reveal no turtle-like rigidity because they require no turtle-like attachment to ribs and vertebrae. Both subspecies showcase five-ridged white lower-shells (plastrons) flat for females and concave for males, big round heads, strong jaws and thick male tails longer than hind-limbs.

Big clawless flippers tethered to big, leathery-skinned, seven-ridged upper-shells for strong-jawed heads, large five-ridged lower-shells and long tails tread water in North American leatherback turtle habitats.

nesting sites for seven subpopulations of leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea): NOAA, Public Domain, via NOAA National Fisheries

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) at nesting site, Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge; Sandy Point NWR was established in 1984 specifically to protect leatherback nesting habitat; southwestern St. Croix, US Virgin Islands; Thursday, June 16, 2011, photo by Claudia Lombard, USFWS: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region (USFWS/Southeast), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwssoutheast/5839996547/

nesting sites for seven subpopulations of leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea): NOAA, Public Domain, via NOAA National Fisheries @ http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/turtles/leatherback.html

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