More megafauna likely to go missing

The Pacific leatherback turtle doesn't have very high numbers in the wild population any more -- according to this report, in a short period of years it'll have NO numbers.

California's leatherback sea turtle could face extinction in 20 years

Leatherback turtles have been on the decline since 1980, according to a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity. The population of nesting sea turtles has dropped by 5.9 percent per year since 1984. The number of nests dropped from 14,455 in 1984 to 1,532 in 2011.

Yikes.

“This study is a grim warning that we’re not doing enough to save leatherback sea turtles or their ocean home. The problems they face--climate change, plastic pollution, fisheries that catch far more than fish--are problems that threaten us, too," Catherine Kilduff of the Center for Biological Diversity said in the release.


Aren't I a fountain of depressing news today?