The Magnificent Migration by Sy Montgomery

Author:Sy Montgomery
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HMH Books

They must dodge the jaws of predators. They also must avoid frigid waters, where they could freeze to death. They must conserve energy. They must steer clear of forceful currents that would sweep them away from their path.

The young loggerheads respond to a particular magnetic field near northern Portugal by turning south. This response helps them stay in warm waters and avoid being swept north into cold waters near Great Britain and Scandinavia. Other magnetic information helps them stay in deep water, where predators are fewer than in the shallows.

Adaptations like these have helped loggerheads successfully complete one of the most arduous migrations on earth for hundreds of millions of years. But none of this prepared them for the threats posed by the exploding population of humans. People eat turtles and their eggs by the ton. We tangle them in our fishing nets and catch them on our hooks. We poison them with pollution; we choke them on plastic garbage tossed into the sea. Human-caused climate disruption may be altering the ocean’s currents. Artificial lights confuse hatchlings trying to follow the moon to the water. Hotels, condos, and ATVs destroy nesting beaches. Because of people, after millions of years of successfully dodging myriad natural dangers, every species of sea turtle on earth is now threatened or endangered.

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