Sgt. Leatherback says...
"Straighten up and pay attention, lives depend on this!"
Marine turtles everywhere are dying needlessly because of things people do.
We kill them for their shells. We kill them for their meat. We make soup from them.
We kill them with our appetite for shrimp, because most shrimp is caught using nets that trap and drown turtles. Yes, turtles can drown.
We steal their eggs by the thousands.
We build condominiums right next to their nesting sites, and then we flood the beach with bright lights, disrupting their attempts to procreate.
We pollute their waters with chemicals and garbage. We carelessly let plastic bags get in to the ocean, where a hungry sea turtle can mistake it for food and die from the error.
Why should we care? Just as the health of animals on land tells us a lot about how the land is doing, the marine turtles of the world are an indicator of how our oceans are doing. Dying turtles are symptoms of sick oceans. Oceans are the original source of life on this planet, and if they die, they will likely take us with them.
We think people should work towards making the world safe for the ocean's turtles. Each community of marine turtles faces its own set of threats. The essays we present here outline these threats, and provide a short description of each species. We hope that by reading them, you will see ways that you can help.
These essays are digests of material we have gathered from various sources, listed in the credits.
Last modified 04/01/24
Send comments or corrections to webmaster@turtles.org
