The leatherback, which is as old as the dinosaurs to which it is closely related, and which sailed blithely through the cataclysmic event that wiped out all its earthbound cousins 65 million years ago, is now on the verge of disappearing.
"I never thought this ancient creature would be vulnerable to extinction," said Larry Crowder of the Duke University Marine Laboratory. "Unless something changes, the [turtles] will be extinct within 10 to 30 years." So in a last, desperate attempt to save the turtle, the Leatherback Trust has turned the Pacific leatherback's desperate Pacific odyssey into an online children's game.
It's called the Great Turtle Race, and you can find it at
GREATTURTLERACE.COM The "race" is the web-based dramatisation of a natural event that has been going on for about 100 million years.
Leatherback turtles in an online race for species survival - 20 Apr 2007 - NZ Herald: Science News from New Zealand and around the World