Green Sea Turtles

On Moorea, I went to a Turtle Rehabilitation Center, where they take care of sick or injured turtles. They were all Green Turtles and they are indigenous to Tahiti. Some had eating problems and some had floatation problems. There were not that many turtles, but there were two babies which made me sad.

Here is some in information on them. When they are young they eat worms, crustacean, aquatic insect, grasses, and algae. When they grow older their jaws become serrated which help them eat algae and other food off rocks. They stay near beaches or on reefs and are rarely are out in the ocean. They are endangered because people kill them for their shells and to eat them. Also people throw plastic into the ocean and a turtle could mistake a plastic bag for a jellyfish. If a turtle ate the plastic bag they could choke and die.

Sea Cucumbers

I met a Marine Biologist named Susan Scott. She writes a column in the Star Advertiser, a newspaper on Oahu. Her next article is going to be about sea cucumbers, a very fascinating creature. I learned a little about sea cucumbers and here is some information on them.

Sea cucumbers look like blobs on the sea floor when they are actually the vacuum. They eat everything on the sea floor, picking up droppings or dead fish. With this they process more than 300 pounds of sediment a year! They are related to the Starfish and the Sea Urchin. There are many different types of Sea Cucumbers. Some spit up their guts when threatened which is very deadly and toxic to fish and other animals that live in the sea. If a fish got caught in the deadly strings of guts that are very sticky, the fish would not be able to move and then slowly dies while the Sea Cucumber slides to safety.

Fakarava

This is my hand with a hermit crab. They were everywhere!!!!

These are clams. They have very bright colors and are beutiful!

                                         This is me in a river on a  uninhabited island.

This is a crab that we saw all over the island in holes.

There was a table on the island that was covered with names of other boats that visited the island before. Here is our name under a boat that we are friends with.