Cause of this melancholy = miseries of the sea turtles <body><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener('load', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() { if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) { gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({ url: 'https://www.blogger.com/navbar.g?targetBlogID\x3d5952851682198040222\x26blogName\x3dTurtle+Tales\x26publishMode\x3dPUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT\x26navbarType\x3dBLACK\x26layoutType\x3dCLASSIC\x26searchRoot\x3dhttps://turtlefreaks.blogspot.com/search\x26blogLocale\x3den_US\x26v\x3d2\x26homepageUrl\x3dhttps://turtlefreaks.blogspot.com/\x26vt\x3d2165705950320322067', where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"), id: "navbar-iframe" }); } }); </script>

Friday, April 13, 2007

Turtles are special creatures we all know of.
Many stories have been told about these gentle beasts.
Some are true, some are merely folktales. The more famous ones are like how the turtle got its shell.
Here is one that is rarely heard of -


The Legend of the Turtle

Some have been told that the Turtle, which lies near the Twin Sisters on the northern approach to Parry Sound, can control the weather. At least that's what travellers on the eastern shore used to believe long before motorized vessels came along. Maybe it was an Ojibway legend, maybe Huron, or a little of both as it probably originated several hundred years ago. But people of modern times, both of native and immigrant descent, have been known to leave offerings for the Turtle to ensure fair weather for their voyages.

The story goes that a lone Indian was making his way northward by canoe in appallingly bad weather, hopping from the shelter of one rocky island to another. As he was crossing the wide stretch at the mouth of the "big sound," the seas and winds grew so strong, and rain pelted in such blinding sheets, that he decided he could go no further. He turned eastward hoping to find shelter from the storm that threatened to swamp his frail craft and claim his life.

Concentrating all his efforts on keeping the waves from overwhelming the canoe as they swept him towards the eastern shore, the man paddled with all his strength to reach safety. Looking up at one point, he was shocked to see through the driving rain an enormous turtle appear on the shore. In great fear, he tried to paddle away from it, but the shrieking wind and waves pushed the canoe towards the turtle as if it were summoning him.

In the dim light of the storm the paddler could see the huge mound of the turtle's shell. Its head was thrust far forward. The frightening creature seemed to overhang the rocks it stood upon. Terrified first by the gale and now by this apparition, the man began to pray. He entreated the turtle to not harm him and to make the wind to ease and the seas to calm so he could continue his journey to his northern home.

To his amazement, that's exactly what happened. The wind and rain gave way to sunshine and blue sky appeared through the clouds until the storm had entirely disappeared. Marvelling at this, the man gradually realized that the turtle was really a huge rock perched on the shore. He went to it and explored the rock, fascinated at how realistic it had seemed in the dim light of the storm. In gratitude, he thanked the turtle's spirit and left under the overhanging shell an offering of deer meat, then resumed his northward journey under blue skies and gentle breezes.

Word of his salvation must have spread because, over the centuries, many other travellers on this exposed portion of the inside passage have left tokens of thanks under the turtle's overhanging shell. Maybe some are still there. The Turtle certainly is, at the very southern tip of Shawanaga Bay, south and east of Pine Point and almost directly east of the Twin Sisters.

Source: Ojibway Melody, by Harry Symons, published by the author in 1946.

[Taken from
http://www.sweetwaters.ca/History%20and%20Folklore%20-%20the%20Legend%20of%20the%20Turtle.htm]

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Thursday, April 5, 2007


Introduction to Sea Turtles

General description, origins and classification.

Sea Turtles are a group of shelled reptiles and belong to the order Testudines or Chelonia. Also included within this order are the terrapins and tortoises.
Within the Chelonia, there are 13 families. The eight species of modern Sea Turtles are found within two of these, the Dermnochelyidae and the Cheloniidae.
The first family has only one Sea Turtle, the Leatherback. The other seven species of Sea Turtle are found in the other family - the Cheloniidae.
Sea Turtles are large animals, the Leatherback attaining a length of 2m and a weight of over 500 kg. (one caught off Wales in 1991 weighed 995 kg!)
The Sea Turtles were common in the Cretaceous period of 130 million years ago.
Their fossil record may well extend back at least 200 million years. Early Sea Turtles were alive with the dinosaurs although the present day genera and eight species originated within the last 60 to 10 million years.


Triassochelys - Skull of an early turtle ( 160 million years ago?), with a shell like that of modern forms, but still possessing teeth on the palate.
Like modern Sea Turtles, the head, tail, and limbs could not be withdrawn into the shell. Protection was gained by the addition of spines.
The aquatic chelonians showed various modifications and there were several lines of evolution. There was a reduction in the bony shell, presumably to save on weight and possible because of the absence of enemies.
Archelon of the cretaceous period ( 3.6 metre shell) was very similar to the modern Cheloniidae.
The fossil history of the chelonia before the triassic period is not all that clear: there is little real evidence to tell us how, when and why one early reptilian group shortened their bodies and covered them with armour for protection.

Recently some bones of a giant sea turtle was found in South Dakota, USA. The fossilized remains of this turtle represent the largest sea turtle ever found - probably 20 feet (six metres) wide! It has been dated at around 70 million years old, when much of the area was covered by water.
Sea Turtles are one of the most attractive, yet vulnerable, of all marine vertebrates. They are widely exploited by man for their eggs, meat and shell. Their survival is seriously threatened by many factors such as pollution, loss of nesting sites, fishing and tourism. All eight species are endangered.

Sea Turtles are adapted for life in the oceans. They are large long-lived animals ( 60+ years?) with relatively streamlined shells. The swimming limbs are held out to the sides more than downwards, making movement on land very difficult. The forelimbs or front flippers are generally elongated and provide the main propulsive force. The hind flippers are large and spadelike and the females use these when digging their nests in the sand.

Loggerhead turtle - internal bones of forearm
Sea Turtles absorb a great deal of salt from their diet and when they drink sea water. They have salt glands in their eye sockets which enables them to excrete excess salt. The salt concentration can be twice as much as in sea water. When female turtles nest they are said to cry: in reality, they are excreting salt via their eye glands.

Sea Turtles feed in a variety of ways although all hatchlings are carnivores, eating slow moving animals near the surface. The adults are essentially carnivores though stomach contents often include vegetable matter. Each species has its own food preference but all tend to be opportunistic. Food ranges from bottom dwellers such as crabs to floating jellyfish. Green turtles are herbivores, feeding on sea grasses, algae and mangrove shoots.
There is some evidence that young Sea Turtles can confuse oil droplets for food and that some adults eat plastic bags mistaking them for jellyfish.

Jelly fish, Laganas Bay, Greece.
It may take 15-30 years for Marine Turtles to reach sexual maturity.
All Sea Turtles have very similar life-histories, mating taking place in coastal waters and the females return to their natal beaches (the place they were born) to lay their eggs.
Some species are less specific ( philopatric) and return to the same area or stretch of coastline. Most species lay about 100 eggs in a flask shaped hole in the sand. Depending on the species, they may lay 2 - 6 times in a season although they may not lay again for 2 - 4 years.

From June to August the Loggerhead and Green turtle visit certain beaches of the Mediterranean to nest. ( The Leatherback does not nest in the Mediterranean)
The female turtle comes ashore at night, digs her nest and lays about 100 soft shelled eggs, which look similar to ping pong balls.
The eggs are then covered with sand and left to hatch.
The nests are about 45 cm deep.
The eggs must remain undisturbed in the warm sand for about 55 or so days before hatching.
If the temperature goes above 28 degrees C the eggs will hatch as females,
below this temperature males will hatch.
Although females lay thousands of eggs each summer, very few hatchlings survive to adulthood. ( 1 in 1000 ? )
Together, the hatchlings dig their way out of the nest.
Usually emerging at night, the group makes its way down the beach and enters the sea.
This race to the sea is important for the hatchlings' biological cycle.

Loggerhead turtles emerging from their nest.
Lights near the beach disorientate them, causing the hatchlings to
wander in the wrong direction.
If this happens they will die of dehydration or be eaten by predators.
This migration to the sea is made more difficult by vehicle tracks and sand
pits made during the day by tourists.
They are too small to climb out and soon die of dehydration in the hot sun of the morning.
For roughly 72 hours they swim directly out to sea to escape shore based predators,
then they begin to feed on passing morsels of food.
It is believed that they drift with the currents, but little is known
of hatchling and pre-adult turtle behaviour.
This period in their life history is known as the lost years.

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