![]() ![]() With an ever-accelerating tide of human impact, the oceans have changed more in the last 30 years than in all of human history before. Human dominion over nature has finally reached the sea. Already there is just one leatherback left in the Pacific for every 20 in 1962, the year I was born. Today we confront the stark possibility that people will drive the leatherback turtle to extinction within the next human generation. The largest living reptile is the leatherback turtle, a barnacle-encrusted eminence that can reach 10 feet long and weigh two tons. Only eight species of marine turtle remain from a lineage that stretches back little changed deep into the age of dinosaurs. At once incongruous and graceful, they connect us to the world of 15 million years ago, when very similar turtles swam alongside megatooth sharks, or 75 million years ago, when they rubbed shoulders with dinosaurs. Like children the world over, my daughters love turtles. ![]()
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