Book Review - Voyage of the Turtle

I just finished reading a most excellent book by Carl Safina. Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur is the story of the plight of sea turtles in general and the leatherback turtle in particular.

These massive beasts -- males can weigh up to a ton -- have been on earth for over 100 million years, yet today they face mixed fortunes. In the Pacific, leatherback populations are under siege and numbers are dropping. In the Atlantic and Caribbean, on the other hand, populations are on the rebound after years of decline.

I love animals. I especially love frogs and reptiles, but I had never given sea turtles much thought before reading Safina's book. Now that I have read it, I am amazed that I had not paid much attention to sea turtles before. After all, they are magnificent animals capable of voyages across vast oceans that stagger the imagination. In many locations, however, they are facing extinction.

Fisheries -- especially shrimp and longline fisheries -- have played their role in the turtles' decline. In some cases, turtles are actively sought as prey; in others, they are the accidental by-catch of factory fishing. Some of the saddest passages in the book are when Safina describes the fate of turtles entangled in nets.

The major cause of concern is not the fishing industry, however, but rather a concerted assault on their eggs. Whether it is degradation of nesting sites or poaching of eggs, the smaller number of females who come ashore to breed are finding it difficult to replentish their race. Little hatchlings that can fit into a man's palm have always had a tough time making it to the water's edge, but the odds against survival seem higher than they have ever been.

Voyage of the Turtle contains scenes so achingly sad to make you cry. It also contains stories of unnecessary loss that will make you mad. But the book is not all doom and gloom. Safina leavens his tale with stories to give you hope for the future survival of these beautiful, gentle giants of the sea.

I have never seen a sea turtle, but now that I have read Voyage of the Turtle I long to do so. Until then, I will say a prayer for the little hatchlings that struggle to make it to the ocean and I'll say a prayer for a species like mine that exterminates these wonders of creation with so little thought.

Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur
Carl Safina
Henry Holt and Company, New York 2006
ISBN: 0-8050-7891-6