PRELIMS BOOSTER 2018
Leatherback sea turtle (lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the luth) and Mercosur (Mercosul)
Leatherback sea turtle (lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the luth)
- Vulnerable – IUCN
- CITES Appendix I species
- the largest of all living turtles a
- the only living species in the genus Dermochelys and family Dermochelyidae
- It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell, hence the name. Instead, its carapace is covered by skin and oily flesh
- Habitat
- Leatherback turtles can be found primarily in the open ocean.
- Circumglobal, present in all the world’s oceans except Arctic and Antarctic; nesting areas are in the tropics, non-nesting range extends to sub-polar regions. Hence we can say it has cosmopolitan global range
- Reasons for decline
- intense egg collection
- fisheries bycatch
Mercosur (Mercosul)
- South American trade bloc
- established by the
- Treaty of Asunción in 1991
- Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994
- Headquarters — Montevideo
- Purpose – – promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people, and currency
- now it is a full customs union
- full members — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay
- Venezuela is a full member but has been suspended since December 1, 2016.
- Associate countries are Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Suriname
- Observer countries are New Zealand and Mexico
- India has signed Preferential trade agreement (PTA) with mercosur. It is presently limited to just 450 products.
- (PTA — is a limited free trade agreement where partner countries reduce import duties on a few identified products for the other)
