get off the sidelines and make a difference this earth day
Climate change, garbage filling our seas, disappearing marine life, reefs dying off – the news about our ocean environment seems almost insurmountable, unsolvable. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Don’t spend another Earth Day sitting on the sidelines hoping the world becomes a better place. Make it happen. 50 years ago this year, a group of concerned citizens launched the world’s first sea turtle conservation effort. Today, half a century after the nonprofit Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC) began studying and protecting sea turtles in Costa Rica, green turtle populations at CCC’s project site in Tortuguero have grown by over 500%. The harvesting of turtles has been replaced with sustainable ecotourism and Tortuguero’s 20-mile sea turtle nesting beach is fully protected as a national park, home to the largest breeding population of green turtles in the Western Hemisphere.
It all started when a small group of people decided to stop watching sea turtles vanish into extinction and started taking action. Today, CCC is using the science-based strategies developed in Tortuguero to protect sea turtles and their habitats in the U.S., the Caribbean and around the world. The threats facing our oceans and marine life are real, but there is still time to make a difference if we all stop waiting on the sidelines and start taking action.
This April 22, celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day by doing your part to protect some of the most important creatures in the sea. Sea turtles fill virtually every niche in the marine environment – from the beaches where they nest to coral reefs, sea grass beds and the open ocean. Sea turtles depend on and enrich all these habitats. By saving them, we can protect the ecosystems that enable all life in the oceans to survive.
“I think of sea turtles as the ambassadors of the sea,” said David Godfrey, executive director of Caribbean Conservation Corporation. “Whether sea turtles vanish from the planet or remain a wild and thriving part of the natural world will speak volumes about the health of the planet and mankind’s ability to coexist with the diversity of life on Earth.”
Today, sea turtles face numerous threats. Commercial fishing activities kill thousands each year. Beachfront development permanently disturbs their nesting habitat. Many sea turtles die from eating or becoming entangled in plastic debris that litters the oceans. Trash, particularly plastic bags that end up in the sea, is often mistaken as food by sea turtles. Leatherbacks, the largest of the world’s sea turtles, are particularly susceptible to confusing plastic bags with jellyfish – the main component of their diet.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported in 2001 that between 500 billion and one trillion plastic bags are used and discarded each year, millions of which end up in our environment.
How You Can Help
Reduce your “plastic footprint” by boycotting plastic bags in grocery stores and shopping outlets. For one month, try using only cloth bags or reuse old plastic bags.
Participate in or organize a trash clean-up project. Find a local clean-up event by looking online at the EPA’s website. If you live near the coast, beach clean-ups are a great way to help maintain clean, safe nesting sites for sea turtles.
To support the conservation efforts of Caribbean Conservation Corporation, become a member by adopting a sea turtle for Earth Day. Visit CCC online at www.cccturtle.org or call 800-678-7853 to join. For a tax-deductible donation of $25, CCC will send a personalized adoption certificate, a sea turtle conservation guide, a membership decal, a sea turtle sticker and bookmark, a hatchling magnet, and a one-year subscription to CCC’s membership publication, all in a keepsake sea turtle folder. Your membership helps continue important research, conservation and advocacy programs that are protecting sea turtles and their ocean habitats.
The nonprofit Caribbean Conservation Corporation was the first sea turtle research and conservation group. Over 50 years ago, CCC launched the global movement to save sea turtles and now conducts the longest continuous turtle conservation programs in the world. Founded in 1959 under the scientific direction of Dr. Archie Carr, the leading authority on sea turtles, CCC is based in Florida and conducts research, education, advocacy programs that are saving sea turtles and their habitats in the U.S. and around the world. †
For images, videos and PSA, please visit cccturtle.org/media
