Problems With Sea Turtle Extinction By Alex Baker

 6 of the 7 sea turtles species are on the endangered species list  Turtles are dying from entanglement in fishing lines, poaching, coastal development, pollution and global warming Problem

 Null: no outside factors are affecting sea turtle populations; they are just naturally dying out  Hypo 1: human factors are causing the high mortality rates of turtles  Hypo 2: environmental factors are causing the high mortality rates of sea turtles Hypotheses

 Random sampling  Longitudinal study  Experimental  Caught 100 turtles and attached tracking devices  Found 2 nests and set up cameras to observe  Control  Caught 100 turtles and took back to laboratory  Located 2 nests, collected eggs and took back to lab Methods

 Found turtles that died  Examined to find cause of death  After one year mark, tracked down other turtles to make sure they were still alive  Observed hatchlings from experimental and control nests  Released turtles from lab Methods continued

Results Fig. 1, Experimental Turtle Outcomes

Fig. 2, Experimental vs. Control

Fig. 3, Nest Experimental vs. Control

SUMMARY GroupsCountSumAverageVariance Experimental group Control group ANOVA Source of VariationSSdfMSFP-valueF crit Between Groups Within Groups Total Fig. 4, ANOVA statistical analysis

 Many turtles died from human factors  Mainly from commercial fishing and pollution  Results correspond to hypothesis 1  Null hypothesis can be rejected Discussion

 Paraiba, Brazil – turtles were dying from ingestion of plastic debris and net entanglement (Mascarhenas, 2004)  Hawaii – turtles were dying from commercial fishing (Work, 2010)  Show the same results - turtles are dying from manmade causes! Other studies

 “Sea Turtle Rehabilitation, Research and Education.” Georgia Sea Turtle Center. 18 November  Mascarenhas R, Santos R and Zeppelini D. “Plastic Debris Ingestion by Sea Turtle in Paraiba, Brazil.” PubMed (2004): December  Work TM and Balazs GH. “Pathology and Distribution of Sea Turtles Landed as Bycatch in the Hawaii-Based North Pacific Pelagic Longline Fishery.” PubMed (2010): December References