Our impetus was that it is currently sea turtle nesting season (the majority being loggerhead sea turtles) in South Florida. Adults and hatchlings face a gaunlet of threats both natural and man-made (e.g. long-line fishing nets; predation on hatchlings from racoons, crabs, seabirds, etc; illegal poaching of turtles; motor boats hitting turtles, and so on) during this stage. The commonly quoted statistic for the mortality rate is that only about 1 out of every 1,000 sea turtles makes it to adulthood and the evolutionary response of the loggerhead has been to lay a large number of eggs (counted in the hundreds) to counter this.
Like many species under threat, nature already throws enough challenges at them, and it is the additional antropocentric pressures that drive populations towards extinction. The one in particular we wanted assist with, if only a little bit, is the pain and death caused by the ingestion of plastic trash, which to a turtle that naturally feeds on jellyfish, can often look like food.
We arrived at Bowman's Beach on Sanibel Island which by most standards is a relatively clean and remote beach. At first glance there seemed to be very little to pick up, but a mere 2 hours of cruising the beach yeilded two very full bags of trash, ranging from cigarette butts to a cell phone.
Along the way we met Amanada who was in the process of re-locating a turtle nest. We watched her recreate the nest the adult turtle had dug then carefully place the eggs inside, and add a little sand from the original nest.
Not only did we learn more about a particular issue by doing this, we met cool people along the way and discovered that most people are well intentioned and want to help (we even asked parents to ask their son who had built an impressive sand castle to fill in the hole when finished, and they said they would be happy to). This short activity greatly enhanced our experience at Sanbel Island and was alot more fun than laying around the beach...though we will do some of that too.
Great post Jeff! It was good volunteering with you. In the two hours we were there, it was amazing to see how much garbage we were able to collect -- quite sad actually. I have made a commitment to carry a plastic bag with me every time I hit the beach, to collect what what other people leave behind, especially plastic and cigarette buds which are detrimental to sea life. I encourage your readers to do the same -- it is easy and rewarding! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat blog darling!! It's so awesome what you guys did for the sea turtles. I hope your story helps to inspire other people to do the same - and also stops more people from littering in the first place.
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