A Little More About Marine Turtles

     During our stay at the Pawikan Conservation Center (PCC), we learned that our marine turtles are endangered due to continuous hunting for food and decorations.  In this post, we will shed light on the ecological importance of marine turtles and what the government is currently doing to help the pawikan.
                                                         

     The marine turtle is ecologically important because it affects both marine and beach ecosystems.  They maintain the numbers of certain marine animals including jellyfish, snails, crabs and shrimps by eating them.  They also trim sea grass, just like horses and cows trim field grass, keeping the grass healthy.  This in turn provides grass beds for breeding and development grounds for many species of fish, shell fish and crustaceans.  Marine turtle eggs also provide nutrients to beaches (since sand doesn't hold nutrients well), which make dune vegetation stronger and healthier.  This improves the health of the ecosystem and protects the beach from erosion.
                                                                     

     As most (if not all) readers know, the world's efforts for development have led to multiple environmental problems including Global Warming.  This is the increase in the overall temperature of the Earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the Greenhouse effect caused by the increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants.  As you can imagine, global warming affects many species of wildlife and one of the many species affected is the marine turtle.  Because of the rise in temperature, the polar ice caps are starting to melt, making sea levels rise.  With sea levels rising, the turtles lose their beach and nesting habitats.  Aside from this, weather extremes are now being experienced, including frequent and severe storms, which alter nesting beaches, cause beach erosion and flood sea turtle nests.  In addition, sand becomes hotter because of the increase in temperature.  This results in decreased hatching rates or complete nest failure.  The temperature increase also affects gender ratio as hotter temperature means more female hatchlings.  This means there won't be enough male turtles to fertilize most of the females, lessening the chances of a female laying eggs.  Last but not the least, the change in temperature also affects the migratory pattern of the turtles by altering currents and impacting distribution and abundance of prey..
                                                                       

     As 6th graders, our choices of helping are limited, though that doesn't mean we cannot help.  Sometimes, things we think won't help at all actually do help a lot.  For example, disposing of trash properly help keep our turtles alive by lessening the chances of marine turtles accidentally eating plastic or other objects they can choke on.  We can also help by trying to help keep our oceans and beaches clean with the method mentioned earlier.  This way, turtles will be given a better chance of surviving and completing their life cycle.  Another way of helping is by volunteering (during summer/semester break) at a conservation center or other groups which aim to help marine turtles survive.
                                                                   

Sources:
http://www.conserveturtles.org/seaturtleinformation.php?page=whycareaboutseaturtles 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
http://www.seeturtles.org/1380/global-warming.html

Our Field Trip to the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant and the Pawikan Conservation Center

Recently, us 6th graders have gone on a field trip to the Pawikan Conservation Center (PCC) and the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). This post will give some of the details of our first site, PCC, and what we were expecting before we actually left the school grounds.

  First of all, we had this field trip to be able to learn more about marine turtles, our efforts to help them survive and to get a background on the BNPP, why it was never activated and what it can do once activated. Second, we joined this field trip because the places we were going to seemed interesting to us, it was the first time we ever went to these places and because it was our last field trip as a TLT 6th grade batch.

  We expected to learn many things about turtles and the BNPP, a very long bus ride, a good vantage point and beautiful scenery in Bataan, our victory/defeat in our competition of ThermoSciDama and unforgettable experiences with classmates. Before the actual trip, we were all excited and couldn't stay still because as mentioned earlier, none of us have ever been to these places and because it was one of the farthest field trips we ever had without students from other batches. 

Now, let's talk about the first site - the Pawikan Conservation Center (PCC)

distributed by Shmuck

 We all expected to learn a good deal about the Pawikan in the Philippines(life cycle, what they eat, how they manage to get back to the beaches they were born on without what we use to do that) and their importance to the water ecosystem.
More on PCC, it is the place where they teach the public about the pawikan, where they release baby turtles into the wild, where voluntary beach cleanups are held and where they rehabilitate injured Pawikan.
In the PCC, we learned about the pawikans and what the human race has gradually done to them and their habitats. We also learned about the few different types of pawikan, their life cycle, the reason for their dramatic dcrease in population, their importance to the water and ecosystem and how we could (help) save the pawikan from going extinct in the wild.

 While we were in PCC, we were able to release several Olive Ridley hatchlings into the wild! Here are some things we thought you should know about these turtles.

1. Names:
 Common: Olive Ridley
 Scientific: Lepidochelys olivacea
 Taxonomic Classification: Kingdom animalia, Phylum chordata, Class Reptilia, Order Testudines, Suborder Cryptodira, Family Cheloniidae or Dermochelyidae, Genus Lepidochelys, Species olivacea

2. Characteristics and Ecological Relationship:
  The Oliver Ridley Turtle is the most abundant species worldwide.It's role in it's environment is to make sure the organisms it feeds on do not overpopulate the area.It eats other organisms including jellyfish, snails,crabs and shrimps and will occasionally eat seaweed as well. Although, the hatchlings of turtles are often preyed upon by crabs, raccoons, pigs, snakes and birds among others.

3.  We chose to inform you about this turtle since it is one of the most  common and it is the turtle that we have the most information on. Also,  as we stated earlier, we were able to release an Oliver Ridley hatchling.







The Gallery:

On the road (SCTEX).......

Looking at the view from our bus.....

Almost there!

Getting a lecture as soon as we arrive in Pawikan..

The beautiful sea.....

The Turtle Race!

One of the Turtles being rehabilitated in Conservation Center.

Tiny Turtles!!!! The cuteness level is over 9000!!

Right after the tiring (but enjoyable) coastal clean-up....

references:http://www.conserveturtles.org/seaturtleinformation.php?page=species_class
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/olive-ridley-sea-turtle/

Meet the team!

(the following names are pseudonyms, not our real names)

IfFoundPlsReturn

 IfFoundPlsReturn- Hi! I'm IfFoundPlsReturn and I am many things. I am a ballerina, book worm, and my classmates call me the "Valedictorian". I have been dancing ballet for 9 years and I am currently in Violet, pointe 1 but I will be Maroon, pointe 2 in summer.
           I like and dislike a few things. I like books, food (especially Pasta), Science, taking on challenges and proving people wrong. But I dislike things as well, such as annoying, arrogant, gross people and people who abuse other people, autocorrect and and losing an argument.

Mass

                                                                                                             Mass- The blog maker. A moderately scaled down version of If Found Please Return. He likes eating, drawing and enjoys watching TV or using the computer. If this blog doesn't meet standards, know I am a beginner.                  

Bella- Salutatitons! I am Bella! I am an artist, one - half of identical twins and a lover of dogs. I have a habit of drawing in class when things get a little bit "boring" and I come up with drawings which my classmates say are nice. I am the younger half of identical twins and I've loved taking care of dogs ever since I could remember.
         I like things. I like reading books, drawing, playing games on electronic devices and questioning people's love life and playing match-maker. I also dislike things.... I pretty much dislike everything IfFoundPleaseReturn dislikes

Schmuck- Hello peeps!! I am Mr. Schmuck! There is over 9000 things about me, but I am two completely different things: A rapper and a comic book nerd. I like rapping because I can't sing and I like to rhyme all the time (see what I did there?). I read books whenever I have the time and I choose DC over Marvel Comics.
           Le me likes and dislikes a lot of things. I like milkshakes because they bring all the boys to the yard, I like Science shows (Cosmos, Bill Nye etc.) and everything I've said before. My dislikes are corny movies, and being forced to do something weird in front of people.



Our reason for making this blog:
To inform people and to document what our teacher, TheUrbanGuru teaches us in his Science class. this is also our equivalent to a school project.

visit our teacher's blog! http://dontwishimyourguru.blogspot.com/

Chewbacca Says (Just for Fun!):