New Certina and Tour de Turtles – Is Mumu winning this year's turtle race?

Tags: News | Certina | Men's | Classic | Diving

3.8.2021 | 4 MIN

If you watch some athletes, for example, on Strava, you might be interested in this turtle race. It may not be as viewed as the Tour de France, but the contestants have to overcome thousands of kilometers with traps as in Fort Boyard. The Sea Turtle Conservancy project maps the routes and you can watch some turtles online on their way. One such turtle named Mumu is also sponsored by Certina this year. So a special edition Certina DS Action STC drawing attention to the issue of endangering turtles cannot be missed.

We associate turtles with endurance. After all, they do have a carapace that won't break easily. It is no coincidence that they don't have very many natural enemies in the sea. And yet, of the seven species, four are critically endangered and three are endangered.

Even tought they swam in the sea more than 220 million years ago. But lately they are not doing well at all. Why is that and how to stop it is being studied by the Sea Turtle Conservancy organisation. The company was founded in 1959 to save the green sea turtle from immediate extinction, and since then it has sought to protect turtles, educate the public and better understand these creatures.

What is threatening turtles today? For example, the beaches on which turtles were used to lay eggs are changing. They are shrinking through urbanization, turtles are don't have the much needed peace there, eggs are attacked by stray dogs, raccoons and other animals. Plus they use visual orientation – they follow the light of the stars above the sea. But the lights coming from human habitations are confusing them.

In the sea, turtles are threatend by fishing nets, plastic fragments, pollution, and even human hunting them for meat. Many turtles also die from disease because of their reduced immunity due to poor water quality. And there is more – climate change, oil spills…

We classify sea turtles into two families. Cheloniidae, in which belings six species of caretta and dermochelyidae with only one species – the leatherback sea turtle.

The  Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC) organizes turtle races every year – Tour de Turtles. The turtles are equipped with a GPS receiver, which locates them. You can view the movement of the turtles directly on the website of the organisation. In the end, the turtle that travels the longest distance wins.

Green sea turtle. Source: cs.wikipedia.org

You can support the turtles. The proceeds go, of course, to the non-profit STC to support the protection of turtles. This year, one turtle was chosen by Certina, who is cooperating with the organization since 2017.

The name of this turtle is Mumu and it is a leatherback sea turtle. She is an adult female, who laid 102 fertile eggs on Soropta beach in Panama in May. She left Panama at the end of May, took it around Jamaica, Cuba and is now near South Carolina. In 64 days she was able to travel 4191 kilometers, which makes her currently second in the list of racing turtles. You can watch her here.

Provisional (July 27) ranking of leatherbacks in this year's Tour de Tourtles 2021.

The largest turtle in the world is leatherback sea turtle. The female lays eggs once every three to four years and she always lays eggs on the beach where she was born. The clutch has about 100 eggs, from which small turtles hatch after about 60 days. Leatherbacks can dive to up to 1280 meters, which is the deepest of all reptiles.

Certina started supporting this organisation only in 2017, but a turtle is in their logo since the yeae 1959. That year, Certina introduced the Double Security Concept, which increases the overall endurance of a watch. Every watch from the DS Action series, which aims at high water resistance has an engraved turtle on a caseback. This series also offers pure diving models.

A model like that was introduced by Certina this year as a special edition. It is the Certina DS Action C032.807.22.041.10 Sea Turtle Conservancy. It is based on the relatively new C032.807 model, which caught some attention due to a smaller case diameter of only 38 mm and its typical design. After all, we have already reviewed the watch in more detail in our magazine:

The special edition differs precisely in connection with the STC organization. Their logo can be found on a caseback instead of the typical turtle. The watch has a blue dial and a bezel insert in combination with a classic bicolor design of the case and bracelet.

The watches have the diving watch ISO 6425 certification, 300 meter water resistance and the Powermatic 80 with a power reserve of 80 hours, which also obtained a magnetic resistant fiber made of the Nivachron alloy.

This is also the first time that Certina watches are offered in a 100% ecological box. It is made of ecological cardboard, the cushion is made of organic cotton and everything is completely decomposable.

Certina has presented a special edition before, the most popular were diving watches with a typical turquoise hand, which I consider as one of the best diving watches for the summer and I still stand by this.

You can still choose a turtle in this year's Tour de Tourtles and support it with a small amount. More information about turtles and how to help with their protection can be found on the Sea Turtle Conservancy website. The winner of the Tour de Tourtles 2021 will be announced in October 2021.