SeaWorld was a very popular exhibitor at this year’s San Diego High Tech Fair. The fair is held annually with cooperation from the San Diego Science Alliance, the San Diego County Office of Education and San Diego City Schools.
The purpose of the event is to demonstrate to students how science and technology translate from theory in the classroom to real life application. More than 2,500 students stopped by our SeaWorld booth to learn about how we are successfully able to rescue, rehabilitate, return, and track threatened and endangered sea turtles. Sea Turtles face many threats in the wild including pollutions like plastics and various types of fishing gear. Their nesting grounds are also significantly impacted by beach development and poaching.
Dr. Mike Shane, a scientist at the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, and two of our Education instructors were on hand to demonstrate and teach students about turtle tracking at SeaWorld San Diego. In 2011, the park successfully returned three rescued sea turtles to the ocean. However their story didn’t end there; Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute scientists were able to track the movements of those sea turtles.
Tracking sea turtles is very important because many sea turtle species migrate thousands of miles, even crossing oceans. Since most of their time is spent in the ocean and beneath the ocean’s surface, tracking gives researchers information about where sea turtles go. It is not only important to know where these animals go, but what time of year they are in certain regions. Tracking gives an idea of what types of habitats are important to sea turtles and helps pinpoint key areas for conservation efforts, such as restricting fishing during times that sea turtles are in a particular area or closing off nesting beaches during sea turtle nesting season.
Follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/seaworldrescue to see the up-to-date tracking information on Myrtle and Maude, two sea turtles we returned in 2011.
