Earth & Sky

Saving the Earth's 'last dinosaurs'

Photo shared by flickr user MattKK.

The leatherback turtle population has declined in the Pacific Ocean by 95% during the past two decades.

But in the Atlantic, the once–endangered leatherback is enjoying a healthy recovery, according to Carl Safina, marine biologist and president of the Blue Ocean Institute. He told Earth & Sky that conservation makes the difference in a changing ocean.

Safina is the author of “Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth’s Last Dinosaur.” He admitted that leatherbacks aren’t actually dinosaurs, but they are ancient and amazing animals. Safina recalled the first time he saw a leatherback turtle.

Carl Safina: It looked like a mechanical monster. It looked like some fake thing. The back looked like the roof of a Volkswagon bug. And I was just astonished.

Safina said that some parts of the world don’t have the conservation measures for turtles that North America can afford to promote and enforce. In some places, people eat the turtle’s eggs and build where the turtles nest. Safina spoke of a choice.

Carl Safina: Either we destroy the world around us and we leave it a poorer place for our children or we steward it, keep all of the things that we value in various ways. We should be using things but not using them up and not destroying them.

Our thanks today to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Written by Lindsay Patterson

3 Comments for Saving the Earth's 'last dinosaurs'

1. 1

   Jul 13, 02:28 PM #

   sophonias says:

   cool

2. 2

   Jul 13, 03:19 PM #

   sophonias says:

   hi my name is the living dead dinosaurs are cool

3. 3

   Jul 13, 04:07 PM #

   tyler says:

   They do like like dinosaurs even though they aren’t.