...two turtle dove

Welcome to the second part of our twelve days of Christmas. And no, that isn't a typo up there (though I'm not going to guarantee anything for the rest of the post). I'm not going to talk about turtle doves. That would be far too obvious, and besides I've talked about them recently. No, instead I'm going to talk about those diving relatives of tortoises, turtles.

Did you know we get turtles in the UK? I'm not talking about those bought from a pet shop and later dumped in the local pond either. (Please don't do it. They can play havoc with the resident wildlife). No, I'm talking about something altogether more special. The world's largest turtle species, the leatherback turtle, lives in the Atlantic and can venture up into the North Sea in pursuit of it's main prey, jellyfish. This means they might even be encountered in The Wash, just offshore from Frampton Marsh. They don't breed around our coasts, preferring warmer waters further south. Leatherback turtles average 1.5 metres in length and 400 kg in weight. the largest ever, found in Wales, was more than double that! This makes them the fourth largest reptile in the world. Their smaller cousins the green sea turtle and the loggerhead turtles can also be found in our waters. And a fourth species, the hawksbill turtle, sometimes ventures into Cornish waters.

Green sea turtle, by Brocken Inaglory

Turtles are just one of the myriad of wonderful creatures that live around our coasts. Creatures that, until very recently, had very little protection. It was only in November this year that 27 'marine conservation zones' were declared around England (Scotland declared theirs a couple of years ago). Until that point, our marine wildlife had been massively undervalued and little promoted. Did you know we have British coral reefs for example? Or seahorses? Or the world's second largest fish, the basking shark.

Whilst the conservation zones are a step in the right direction, there is still a lot left to be desired. Important sites for seabirds were neglected by the list, for example. If you'd like to add your weight behind our efforts to protect our valuable sealife, then visit our campaign site for more details.

Another way of helping is by reducing your use of plastic bags. Every years thousands upon thousands of plastic bags are thrown away. Some make it into landfill, but others make their way by diverse routes out to our coasts, and float there in the sea. Floating bags look a lot like jellyfish, and turtles eat them. The bag then clogs up the digestive system of the turtle, leading to starvation. So help stop the turtle population from diving, and get yourself a nice reuseable bag (and remember to use it). Most supermarkets these days have them, or else you could always buy the RSPB bag for good.