Mr Leatherback's Sharebook 

I love fish.  They're often my only companions as I swim through the ocean – little pilot fish and minnows swimming around me, remoras wishing they could latch on to me, and the bizarre and amazing fish that I see down in the DEEP.  Near the surface, fish love to follow me… using me for cover as one of few objects in the shapeless open ocean…and I don't mind the company. In fact, I'm impressed by their swimming abilities, and jealous that they can actually breathe underwater!

What I don't love is how fisheries are threatening the future of turtlekind on Earth. Something people don't think about when they eat fish is the diversity of life in the sea, and how catching one fish can really have impacts on lots of other sea animals – like the predator who would have eaten that fish, or the turtle that drowned in the net that caught that fish. People often forget that most fish are caught from the wild, not like domestic livestock like chickens or cows.

To celebrate all the fish in the sea, I want to know: what's your favorite kind of fish?  Send me a message about your favorite fish.  And include a picture too if you want – I'll take as many responses as I can fit on Friday to share with you.  And make sure you pick up a guide to smart seafood choices – it's the key to ensuring that you're doing your part to keep the oceans safe for turtles!

Can't wait to hear from you!

Mr. Leatherback

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

I want to thank everyone who sent greetings and badges, I really appreciate it!  I spent a wonderful weekend swimming and chomping on as many jellyfish as I could find-thanks to all of you who signed the pledge I felt a lot more secure in my hunting!  If your friends haven't signed the pledge yet, encourage them to sign today! 

I'll have an update on the race later today as well as another interview, but first I wanted to let you know of another way you can help: by making smart seafood choices.  

One of the greatest threats to my leatherback brethren and me (and really everything in the sea) is often on your dinner plate: fish… or more exactly, the process of how fish get from my home to yours. You see, fisheries impacts are one of the biggest threats to leatherback turtles like me – and according to some, they're the number one reason we're going extinct in the Pacific.  We get ensnared in nets, hooked or tangled on longlines, or swept up in trawling operations…and it's not even intentional! Take it from me: it's pretty unpleasant, and also pretty serious.

A lot of people don't think about where their seafood comes from. But unlike beef, chicken, and pork, most seafood is taken straight from the wild, and the process of getting it out of the sea can harm lots of other things living out here!  As my friend Sylvia Earle likes to say, trawling (the way most shrimp are caught) is equivalent to bulldozing a forest to catch a few squirrels… The nets just drag along the bottom, scooping up everything in their path and sometimes pulling up 9 pounds of other life for every 1 pound of shrimp.

So, what can you do about it?  Well, it's actually pretty easy... The first thing is to eat less seafood. And when you do eat it, make smart seafood choices! To help with that, check out this pocket guide that was made to help people figure out which fish are okay to eat and which should be avoided.  You can print it out and keep it in your wallet for when you go to the grocery store or a restaurant.  And if you're ever in doubt, it's generally a safe bet for people in the U.S. to choose seafood from U.S. fisheries – the U.S.A. has strict rules and regulations for fishing, including measures to protect endangered species like sea turtles. And believe me, it helps! Your purchasing power can not be underestimated! I'll have more on this subject later this week...

- Mr. Leatherback 

PS- Don't forget to get your own widget for my Help Save Leatherbacks fundraiser!



A green sea turtle that was caught in a fishing net