Turtles Racing for Their Lives

Now that we have become economically advanced and use many of our natural resources as a means to obtain this success, we have forced many animals out of their homes and many into extinction.

In the Pacific Ocean especially we are now facing a possiblility of putting the Leatherback turtles into extinction as well, due to human activity in the water. Leatherback turtles are the largest turtle in the world and can reach a shell length of 1.7 meters.These species have managed to outlive the dinosaur over 110 million years ago, but may not be able to outlive humans' longline fishing, ocean pollution and global warming.

In the 1980s there was an estimated 115, 000 Leatherback turtles, and now the number may be as low as 25,000. The main problem , concluded by many marine biologists is long line fishing, which entangles the turtle causing injury to its shoulder or flippers , which enables the turtles' ability to swim.
In the late 1980s regulations under the TED (Turtle Excluder Devices), were passed to keep shrimp fleets from trapping and drowning turtles, which did help some Leatherbacks, but the problem still exists today.

There are a few groups such as the Leatherback trust, and the Tagging of Pacific Predators, but from what I've researched there's little being done now to regulate and help with the depletion and possible extinction of this animal.