Loggerhead

Greg's Fourth Grade

Misc texture 2

Chapter 3 - MY Life as a Young Sea Turtle 

     When I was finally out of my egg I was greeted by the late night sky and this was perfect because there are less predators and it's harder to see me in the night but the problem is that I go towards the light and there are two lights. Which one do I go for? Hmm. I am supposed to go to the light against the horizon, which is the brightest light. Because it leads me to the ocean. We swim to the part of the ocean where there is sea weed where we can hide from predators for 6 to 12 years. Sargussum is a brown algae. We eat it and it protects us.

Humans like you can stop oil leaks and other ocean pollution!

And the plastic... Oh, the plastic! Please stop using plastic!!!

     We help each other dig out of the sand because we push our shells down.  We quickly get up out of our hole that our mother made. We lay under the first layer of sand until night time. When it gets cool we wait until all of the predators are gone as in, raccoons, crabs, snakes and birds. And then we scurry to the ocean.

Me and my siblings are currently in eggs that look like this one.

This is pretty much what we look like inside our eggs. A little confusing but it sure is cozy.

Hi, my name is Mrs Bob and my life started in a hole. My mother laid my egg along with my 110 brothers and sisters, buried us alive, and returned to the sea. I know, my mother sounds like a terrible mom to you, but this is the way turtle mothers care for their eggs.

I was swimming free in the ocean when a GREAT WHITE SHARK came zooming towards me! I swam as fast a logger head could go, which was 1.6 km per hour, and it was my lucky day because the shark gave up the chase. I also had some fishermen try to hunt me...

I saw a snack so I decided to eat it, but it was a trap! I got hooked, but luckily these fishermen catch fish and let them go or I would have been in big trouble!

Another day I went into a bull shark's territory... and let's just say, it wasn't so happy to see me.

Also killer whales eat turtles... well, they eat leather backs. Lucky for me I'm a logger head.

All About Sea Turtles - Longevity &amp; Causes of Death ..&lt;

Loggerhead turtles are named for their large heads that support powerful jaw muscles, allowing them to crush hard-shelled prey like clams and sea urchins. They are less likely to be hunted for their meat or shell compared to other&nbsp;sea turtles. Bycatch, the accidental capture of marine animals in fishing gear, is a serious problem for loggerhead turtles because they frequently come in contact with fisheries.

My mother had to lay me and my siblings at night because if she did by day there would be a bunch of very RUDE predators trying to eat me and my siblings!

Me and my siblings have to incubate for 45-55 days before we can hatch.

The sex of me and my siblings depends on the temperature of the nest. So my mother has to be very careful not to make the hole to deep or all of us will be male, and she can't make it too shallow or we'll all be female. Sometimes you just gotta give some credit to how much work mother sea turtles put into laying eggs.

Individual solutions: Reuse plastic Use reusable straws Try not to buy too much plastic packaging Buy larger sizes or in bulk because there is less packaging put stuff in the recycle bin

Small Group Solution Beach Clean up Put up posters

Chapter 4 - Dangerous Things on the Beach 

It was like a war zone. Birds were swooping down, raccoons quickly grabbing any thing that got close. ghost crabs, dogs eating us when were still alive. when they got to the water they were gulped down by fish. I was one of the last I sprinted towards the water i hid when I saw a sea bird fly over me when I made it to the water I swam so fast I felt like my body was falling apart but the important thing was I MADE IT.

Here are some of the things in the ocean that can hurt me.

We loggerheads are carnivores so, take a guess... we eat meat! Our diet consists mainly of crustaceans, mollusks, and crabs. Small meals, I know, but they sure are tasty! We eat these hard shelled creatures because our jaws are strong and powerful so we can crush their shells to get to the soft, tasty part.

https://www.seeturtles.org/sea-turtle-migration

“Information About Sea Turtles: Threats from Artificial Lighting.” Sea Turtle Conservancy, conserveturtles.org/information-sea-turtles-threats-artificial-lighting/.&nbsp;

https://kids.kiddle.co/Loggerhead_sea_turtle

“Sea Turtle Nesting Behavior.” NSU, cnso.nova.edu/seaturtles/nesting-behavior.html.&nbsp;

https://www.natgeokids.com/au/discover/animals/sea-life/loggerhead-turtle-facts/

https://www.caldwellschools.com/cms/lib/NC01811136/Centricity/Domain/1549/kids_times_turtle_loggerhead.pdf

www.fisheries.noaa.gov For What I Like To Eat: What do logger head sea turtles eat.

The plastic problem is deeply affecting sea turtles. My kind! Most of us absolutely, positively, LOVE jellyfish. That's why plastic bags are so dangerous for us. They look exactly like jellyfish to us. We can easily eat them without realizing the danger and then the plastic bag gets stuck in our digestive system. I know we sound dumb for eating plastic bags but we don't exactly have the brains of a human.

Sea turtles are eating a lot of plastic and it's dangerous.

     This is an example of turtles eating garbage.  Turtles eat garbage because they don't have as good of eye sight as humans and they think garbage is food. 

Now it's time to go to the beach to lay my eggs. I travel over 12,000 kilometers&nbsp;every 2 or 3 years. I'm coming to the beach in April and I'm going to leave in September. Now I'm at the same beach I was at when I was a hatchling. This is where I'm going to be laying my eggs at the age of 35. I make it to the beach at night time so I can avoid predators just like when I hatched and went into the ocean at night to avoid them. Every 14 days I come and lay different nests of eggs that are called clutches. I do that about 4 different times.&nbsp;I clear away the sand with my front flippers. Then I dig a hole with my back flippers. Next I lay the eggs in the hole. My eggs look like golf balls.

Yay, I'm finally out of my egg. It sure was dark in there. After all, I was in there for a whole 60 days! As well as my 126 brothers and sisters. Right when we hatch out of our eggs, humans call us hatchlings. When I first hatch out of my egg, I am only two inches long!

Chapter 1 - Mama's Nest (Mahina)...........................................3

Chapter 2 - Hatching Day! (Cynthia).........................................6

Chapter 3 - My life as a young sea turtle(Cynthia, Zander)............................8

Chapter 4 - Dangerous things on the beach................................9

Chapter 5 - Dangers in the Ocean...................................10

Chapter 6 - What I like to eat (Mahina)...................................12

Chapter 7 - How Humans Impact Me...................................13

Chapter 6 - Plastic Pollution Solutions (Cynthia)..................................17

Chapter 7 - Going back to the beach(Cynthia,Mahina)................................18

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