Our Ocean Backyard, Dan Haifley: Turtle soup, toxic stew
- wallacejnichols
- April 3, 2010
Graceful and deliberate, the sea turtle's seven species can travel great distances over water to land during their long lives. Like gentle garden tenders, they play an important role, maintaining each habitat they occupy.
My last two columns looked at local efforts to protect sea turtles at both ends of their Pacific migratory route between Baja California Sur, Mexico, and Japan's east coast.
Their historic, popular status as a food staple has been one of the primary threats to their existence. But with rising levels of ocean pollution and the sale of sea turtle meat and eggs on the unregulated and unsanitary black market, there is also a very serious health hazard to the people who eat them.
Read more here
