Colorful Turtle Design For Earth Day on A US Postage Stamp
This Earth Day design for 2011 features a cute colorful turtle with a decorated shell and limbs. Though designed to be an artistic turtle it is also symbolic of the environmental threats facing all turtles.
The illustration on its shell of a map showing the continents of Earth aims to focus attention on the global threats facing the marine turtle. Six of the seven species of marine turtles are listed as endangered or critically endangered, and the outlook is bleak. In the Pacific, leatherback turtles are quickly heading for extinction, and in the Mediterranean, green turtle numbers have significantly declined.
Marine turtles have the potential to reproduce abundantly with a mother laying hundreds of eggs in one nesting season, but few young turtles survive their first year of life, as they are often at the mercy of human and natural predators as they make their way from the nest to the sea and in the shallow waters. It takes decades for surviving juveniles to reach maturity and start to breed, and adult turtles must live to reproduce over many years if the population is to thrive. But escalating mortality on the high seas, in the nets and long-lines of fishing fleets, and from pollution and disease, means fewer and fewer turtles are living long enough to reproduce. Effective conservation means protecting turtles and their environment at all stages of their life cycle.
The stamp is only valid for use in the US Postal System.
Earth Day is April 22nd.
