Green Daily

It's a tough time to be a turtle. Their oceanic habitats are getting more acidic, their numbers are dwindling, and there are so many of those plastic bags -- the ones that look just like delicious jellyfish, but seriously screw up turtle innards -- floating around.

Lucky for the turtles, they have an advocate and ambassador: Mr. Leatherback, a.k.a. "The James Bond of the animal kingdom."

Mr. Leatherback is a character who travels around the world -- he's been to 43 countries so far -- helping to raise awareness for his gentle and critically-endangered brethren.

In addition to his in-person educational appearances, Mr. Leatherback is big on the internet. He has a brand new website, plus he's on twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube! Definitely check out the photo gallery -- it's pretty funny to see a giant turtle in front of the Coliseum and Great Pyramids!

Also, as you can see in the video, he's quite an accomplished dancer. Especially for an oversized reptile.

He and Olympic swimmer Rowdy Gaines are sharing announcing duties for the Great Turtle Race, which starts today in Nova Scotia.

The race follows 11 turtles on their annual migration from the cold waters of Canada to the Caribbean and South America. You can visit the Conservation International site to meet the racers, who all have names and distinct personalities. Mr. Leatherback, along with cool race sponsors like R.E.M. and Pearl Jam, hope the race will spread the word about the plight of the turtles, but in a fun, non-doom and gloom way.

With friends like Mr. Leatherback looking out for them, I'm feeling a little more optimistic for the turtles!