Sea turtles are turtles found in all the world's oceans except the Arctic ocean.
Although they have been around for tens of millions of years since theMesozoic , the body of sea turtles hasn´t changed much. Sea turtles possess flattened bodies with two rear legs and highly-evolved paddle-like front arms.
Sea turtles spend almost all their lives submerged but must breathe air for the oxygen needed to live. They can quickly replace the air in their lungs that are adapted to permit a rapid exchange of oxygen and to prevent gasses from being trapped during deep dives.. During routine activity some turtles dive for about 4 to 5 minutes and surface to breathe for 1 to 3 seconds.
Sea turtles possess a salt excretory gland at the corner of the eye, or in the tongue, depending on the species.
Turtles can rest or sleep underwater for several hours at a time but submergence time is much shorter while diving for food or to escape predators.
Sea turtles are highly sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field and use it to navigate. The longevity of sea turtles has been speculated at 80 years. The fact that most species return to nest at the locations where they were born seems to indicate an imprint of that location's magnetic features. The Ridley turtles are especially peculiar because instead of nesting individually like the other species, they come ashore in one mass arrival known as an "arribada" (arrival)
Some of the eggs are unfertilized and the rest contain young turtles. Incubation takes about two months. The length of incubation and the gender of the hatchling depends on the temperature of the sand. When the time comes, these hatchlings tear their way out of their shells with their snout and once they have reached the surface of the sand, they will instinctively head towards the sea. Only a very small proportion of them (usually .01%) will be successful, as many predators wait to eat the steady stream of new hatched
Like many other animals in the world, sea turtles have predators. An example of natural protection is their shell. Other protections include the ability of some species' massive jaws to suddenly snap shut, and to stay underwater for hours on end; these are both instinctual and natural. Turtles have many senses to aid them in the sea.
Marine turtles are caught worldwide, despite it being illegal to hunt most of the species in many countries.
A great deal of intentional marine turtle harvests worldwide are for the food industry. In many parts of the world, the flesh of sea turtles are considered fine dining. Texts dating back to the fifth century B.C. describes sea turtles as exotic delicacies in ancient China .Historically, many coastal communities around the world have depended on sea turtles as a source of protein.
To a much lesser extent, specific species of marine turtles are targeted not for their flesh, but for their shells. a traditional decorative ornamental material used in Japan and China
All species of sea turtles are listed as threatened or endangered.
Nets used in shrimp trawling and fishing have been known to cause the accidental deaths of sea turtles. The turtles, as air-breathing reptiles, must surface to breathe. Caught in a fisherman's net, they are unable to go to the surface to breathe and suffocate to death in the net.
Beach development is another area which poses threats to sea turtles. Since sea turtles return to the same beach locations to nest, if these areas are developed they may be left with nowhere to nest, or their nesting locations may be threatened by human activity.
Another major threat to sea turtles is the black market trade in eggs and meat. This is a problem throughout the world, but especially a concern in thePhilippines, India, Indonesia and throughout the coastal nations of Latin America
Moreover, global warming may also cause a threat to sea turtles. Since temperatures in the sands define the sex of the turtle while developing in the egg, many feared rising temperatures would only produce one sex, but more research remains to be done in order to understand how climate change might affect sea turtle gender distribution.
NB2A/C
I must tell you off because many of you didn´t do your homework. you should ,otherwise it´s a huge delay in the development of the class and my class plan has to change. So, please, work a bit.
-Speaking: An exercise with the structure "how long have you lived?" and the answers with FOR and SINCE. Then another activity in a group of four, a sort of class survey using the present perfect
- Grammar: Grammar books ,units 18 and 19 dealing with the same topics,so you did it fast and well. So now that you´ve got it, keep it.
-Vocabulary: Unit 7B . To stress the words since someone is born until the die. Then you had to number the expressions in a logical order.
- Reading: About films and film directors: Hitchcock and Tarantino. fifteen facts about their lives you had to decide which refer to one or the other. Simple past for Hirchcock who died and past, simple present and present perfect for Tarantino .
- Speaking: Think about a member of your family , a grown-up , your classmate has to ask questions about his life. We carried on with the same structures but referred to your personal experience.
- Listening: About Sofia Coppola with seven items of information you had to relate to the listening. At the end I played it with the tapescript at sighrt.
- Homework:
- Workbook,pages 58,59
- Compositions : an e-mail or informal letter to a friend
- Student´s book.pages 74 and 75
NI2E
- Homework: Student´s book, pg 67. Revise and check. Grammar, unit 46"Have sth done"
- Unit 5A : Grammar. difference between the present perfect simple and continuous .Student´s book ,pg70 and Grammar Bank,page 138 with the rules and exercises . Grammar, unit 10 where we saw these differences and did the exercises. It took us a great deal of time since we hardly ever use the present perfect in Spanish, let alone the continuous form.
-Vocabulary and speaking: Vocavulary bank, page 154.Aninals. First you had to classify some animals into categories :wild animals, pets, insects, birds... We also saw some of the baby aninals such as kitten, puppy chick, lamb, calf and foal. finaly some parts of them lioke paws, claws, wings, beak and so on. a few minutes to remember and then you tested your partner to check how many he/she remembered.It was fun.
-Homework: Grammar books, unit 10, speaking about animals and I´ll collect the compositions based on page 66 in your student´s book.