Save Sea Turtles, Marine Life and the Ocean...

Although sea turtles have spiritual or mythological importance in many cultures around the world, this has not prevented humans from consuming their eggs or meat. In many coastal communities, especially in Central America and Asia, sea turtles have provided a source of food. During the nesting season, turtle hunters comb the beaches at night looking for nesting females. Often, they will wait until the female has deposited her eggs to kill her. Then, they take both the eggs and the meat. Additionally, people may use other parts of the turtle for products, including the oil, cartilage, skin and shell. Many countries forbid the taking of eggs, but enforcement is lax, poaching is rampant, and the eggs can often be found for sale in local markets. 
Hawksbill sea turtles, recognized for their beautiful gold and brown shells, have been hunted for centuries to create jewelry and other luxury items. As a result, these turtles are now listed as critically endangered. Scientists estimate that hawksbill populations have declined by 90 percent during the past 100 years. While illegal trade is the primary cause of this decline, the demand for shells continues today on the black market. The lack of information about sea turtles leads many tourists to unwittingly support the international trade in these endangered species. Buying, selling or importing any sea any sea turtle products in the U.S., as in many countries around the world, is strictly prohibited by law. 
 Each year hundreds of thousands of adult and immature sea turtles are accidentally captured in fisheries ranging from highly mechanized operations to small-scale fishermen around the world. Global estimates of annual capture, injury and mortality are staggering — 150,000 turtles of all species killed in shrimp trawls, more than 200,000 loggerheads and 50,000 leatherbacks captured, injured or killed by longlines, and large numbers of all species drowned in gill nets. The extent of gill net mortality is unknown, but sea turtle capture is significant where studied, and the drowning of sea turtles in gill nets may be comparable to trawl and longline mortality. Deaths in gill nets are particularly hard to quantify because these nets are set by uncounted numbers of local fishermen in tropical waters around the world. Other fisheries that accidentally take turtles include dredges, trawls, pound nets, pot fisheries, and hand lines.  
It is estimated that more than 100 million marine animals are killed each year due to plastic debris in the ocean. More than 80% of this plastic comes from land. It washes out from our beaches and streets. It travels through storm drains into streams and rivers. It flies away from landfills into our seas. As a result, thousands of sea turtles accidentally swallow these plastics, mistaking them for food. Leatherbacks especially, cannot distinguish between floating jellyfish — a main component of their diet — and floating plastic bags. Most of the debris is recognizable: plastic bags, balloons, bottles, degraded buoys, plastic packaging, and food wrappers. Some plastics aren't so easy to see, so small, in fact, that it is invisible to the naked eye. If sea turtles ingest these particles, they can become sick or even starve.

Turtles are affected to an unknown, but potentially significant degree, by entanglement in persistent marine debris, including discarded or lost fishing gear including steel and monofilament line, synthetic and natural rope, plastic onion sacks and discarded plastic netting materials. Monofilament line appears to be the principal source of entanglement for sea turtles in US waters. 
Marine pollution can have serious impacts on both sea turtles and the food they eat. New research suggests that a disease now killing many sea turtles (fibropapillomas) may be linked to pollution in the oceans and in near-shore waters. When pollution enters the water, it contaminates and kills aquatic plant and animal life that is often food for sea turtles. Oil spills, urban runoff from chemicals, fertilizers and petroleum all contribute to water pollution. Because the ocean is so large, many incorrectly assume that pollutants will be diluted and dispersed to safe levels, but in reality, the toxins released from these pollutants become more concentrated as they break down in size. As a result, these smaller, more toxic particles become food for many links in the food chain, including sea turtles. 
 
The Scope of the Pacific Garbage Patch

Captain Moore is one of a small group of biologists, bureaucrats, and activists who are working on the growing ocean garbage problem. Estimates place the size of this floating island of garbage, debris or flotsam to be two to three times the size of Texas or 5 million square miles containing 100 million tons of debris. Some estimates place the size of the Pacific Garbage Patch at one and a half times the size of the United States. That is an awful lot of trash.

This growing island of garbage is mostly the result of garbage coming from land-based sources and a smaller amount coming from trash being tossed by ships at sea. The garbage gets washed up on shore, impacts our wildlife which in turn impacts people via the food chain.

The Sources of the Ocean Debris

Much of the garbage comes from land-based sources, starting as the plastic bags and plastic bottles that are used every day and thrown away. Garbage and debris in the ocean starts out way before reaching the ocean; this garbage frequently finds its way from streams, rivers and storm drains that lead to the ocean. Researchers from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation estimated based on results from a 2005 study that 2.3 billion individual pieces of trash or a total of 60 tons of trash were making their way into the ocean from two Southern California Rivers, the Los Angeles and San Gabriel.


Please guys get the word out and sign, share and pass it on. I thank you all. Keep up the good work, with respect always James Howie... (Warriors of All Realms)...
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