Description
For more than 100 million years. the ancestors of marine turtles swam the oceans. Yet in less than a century. exploitation and habitat destruction have devastated their numbers. The U.S. Postal Service celebrates the protection of these intriguing creatures with six stamps. featuring species dependent on U.S. coastal waters for foraging and migratory habitats during various stages of their lives. All six turtles are listed and protected under the Endangered Species Act.
The stamps showcase a gray-green Kemp’s ridley (Doug Perrine. photographer); a black and white leatherback (Rowan Byrne. photographer); an olive ridley (Solvin Zankl. photographer); a green sea turtle (David B. Fleetham. photographer); a mottled orange-brown loggerhead (James D. Watt. photographer); and a brownish-yellow hawksbill (Claudio Contreras. photographer).
The selvage features another hawksbill sea turtle (Reinhard Dirscherl. photographer). To the right of this photo are the names of the species written in upper-case. white letters. At the lower left of each stamp. the common name of the species is printed vertically upward in white. The issuance title PROTECT SEA TURTLES appears in large. white type against a dark blue background to the left of the stamps.
