The giant traveler
Leatherback (caná) · Laúd
Scientific name: Dermochelys coriacea
The leatherback is a record-breaking traveler: the largest, the one that migrates farthest, the one that dives deepest. And yet its future is decided on a handful of beaches, where communities wait for it every season.
In Acandí, the COCOMASUR community has turned La Playona into a sanctuary. That’s where we learned that conservation is, above all, working together.
10 facts
It is the largest turtle in the world: up to 2.5 meters long and around 900 kg.
It has no hard shell: its shell is made of leathery skin.
It makes the longest migration ever recorded: 20,900 km in 647 days.
It can dive to 1,000 meters deep.
It feeds on jellyfish.
Its beak is shaped like a W.
It is critically endangered (CR) in Colombia.
La Playona, in Acandí, is its sanctuary, cared for together with the COCOMASUR community.
Its eggs are still eaten on the Caribbean coast.
At La Playona, with the leatherbacks and with COCOMASUR, our scientific director sealed her decision and life mission.
Where it lives in Colombia
In the Caribbean, in the Gulf of Urabá: its great sanctuary is La Playona, in Acandí.
You'll find it in
What it teaches us
That greatness is also fragile. An animal able to cross oceans depends on someone, on a single beach, looking after its nests.
How you can help
- Don't eat turtle eggs, on the coast or anywhere else.
- Use less plastic: to a leatherback, a floating bag looks like a jellyfish.
- If you visit a nesting beach, don't use lights or flash at night, and keep your distance.
- Report the sale of turtle eggs to the Policía Nacional or your regional environmental authority.
How you can help
Don't eat turtle eggs, on the coast or anywhere else.