Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Save the Sea Turtles



Our oceans are in peril from climate change, disease, pollution, and overfishing. There is a huge push for Coral Reef preservation and I want to join it. I have noticed lots of people, especially in our family blogs, are writing about their causes in their blogs. My cause is to save the sea turtles.
They are gorgeous creatures that are worth more to us alive than dead. The sea turtles fill an important ecological role by controlling prey species and themselves providing food to larger predators. Sea turtles are biological nutrient transporters. The energy contained inside turtle eggs comes from the food items that the turtles have found in the marine environment. They are a balanced and key part to the interaction of the ecosystems found in the ocean and dry land. Marine turtles are economically important to humans. Coastal communities in developing countries use sea turtles as a source for food. Sea turtles have become increasingly important as an ecotourism attraction. This has led to a rise in tourism operations that in turn provide jobs and income to seaside communities throughout the tropical and subtropical part of the world. Marine turtle watching increases people's interest in marine and coastal issues and inspires commitment to support conservation efforts. Marine turtles are flagship species that attract help to themselves as well as to the many species with which they co-exist.
Three objectives to help save the sea turtles are:
a. reduce the breaking down of sea turtle habitats through building and maintaining marine and beach preservations and through educating and ecotourism to create an interest and an awareness in sea turtles.
b. reduce the bycatch of sea turtles in large fishing nets through national and international agreements to use turtle friendly fishing practices such as turtle excluder devices in nets.
c. reducing illegal trade of turtle products by personally not buying anything using turtles products. Such as turtles shells and turtle meat and eggs.

One small thing I'm starting to do is to cut all the rings of my pop can rings so that they can't find their way into the ocean and end up around any animals neck (like in the movie "Happy Feet") and by slicing the bottom of my plastic grocery shopping bags so they aren't mistaken for jelly fish and swallowed or better yet just using paper bags then recycling them. (Although I do hope that non of my garbage will ever find it's way into the ocean.)

2 comments:

Melanie said...

Well said and amen.

bn43 said...

Great post!

For those interested in how to find sea turtle projects where your visit will directly benefit conservation efforts, check out SEE Turtles. www.seeturtles.org

-Brad Nahill