Fish of the Day 57 - I got that leatherback in me

todays fish of the day is the leatherback sea turtle! I remember learning about them when I was like 6 years old, in a library. I got a cool poster afterwards

Leatherback turtle facts:

- They are the largest sea turtle in the world, their carapace capable of growing over 2 meters in length, and their flippers being able to reach 2.7 meters in larger specimins!

- Unlike all other known species of sea turtle, they are the only one without a hard shell, and scales. Instead, they have rough, leather-like skin, which gives the creature it's name.

- This turtle is the last surviving member of the family Dermochelyidae. There used to be an additional 7 species, but they all went extinct! The leatherback sea turtle has been on earth for over 100 million years, so it seems like it's prehistoric relatives just weren't lucky enough.

- Among all sea turtles, the leatherback has by far the longest migratory journey. They stay in very cold waters, but travel to warmer climats to lay eggs, which results in some needing to travel 3,700 miles from their feeding grounds.

- This thing just can't stop being different! Unlike most sea turtles, they can't actually chew prey. They lack the plates most turtles have, so instead of hunting hard bodied animals, they instead choose to pursue soft bodied prey, specifically jellyfish. However, this causes one problem that really endangers the turtles; a plastic bag floating in the ocean looks very similar to a jellyfish in the eyes of a leatherback. This is one of the many reasons why they are listed as endangered, both by COSEWIC and the Species At Risk Act.

- The gender of these turtles is determined by the temperature when they hatch. If the temperature is lower than 28.75°C, it's male, but if it's higher than that temperature, it'll be female! This is called TSD. However, with climat change, there have been many more females being born, which is causing a disbalance among their populations. 

Do you got that leatherback in you? I do! They're found in the eastern coast, so maybe someday i'll be lucky enough to see one in the wild.