We have heard how modernisation is making our lives better. We have heard how constructing more buildings are financially improving our world. We have also heard how cars and trucks are making our everyday needs more convenient. However, we have not heard enough of how some of those industrial progresses in our daily life are harming those that really fit in with the world ecosystem. Those are not car engines, or wet cement, but all the animal species in the world, and one of the most neglected and close to extinction species, Sea Turtles.
Sea turtles are usually found in warm and temperate waters throughout the world; for example, one of the two main Loggerheads nesting area is located along the Atlantic coast of Florida and the Australian Flatbacks are only found in the waters of Australia. Millions of sea turtles once roamed the earth’s oceans, but now only a fraction remains.
The ancient creatures are threatened by two kinds of dangers, natural hazards, such as: shark attacks, or their eggs raided by racoons, ants etc. Even though ocean-life for them seems tough, but natural threats are not the reasons the turtles population tumbled towards extinction, it is because of us, humans.
The more people hunt for fun and trade, the higher the possibility the sea turtles extinct. Hunting for food has previously been a necessity in human civilisation and, of course, may still be necessary in some parts of the less developed world. However, hunting for sport or trade is wrong because innocent animals are being killed. Men are using the death of a living creature as entertainment or advantage. Many find some of their body parts are very useful to mankind, for example, their shells have been used to make jewellery and ornaments, their skin to make small leather goods, their meat and eggs for food and their fat for oil.
Many hunters claim that hunting is a way to conserve the environment, to appreciate nature, exercise and provides an education in Mother Nature, but no, hunting is not what they consider it to be. Hunting is a way to waste the beauty of the natural environment and extinguish many innocent species. Hunters are actually “enjoying” the environment for their own entertainment and advantage.
Sea turtles are most of the time threatened by human capture, harvesting of eggs, destruction of nesting beaches, ocean pollution, oil spills and entanglement in fishing nets. These human-caused threats are all taking a serious toll on the remaining sea turtles population, causing some species to be close to extinction and some even entirely wiped out.
If we continue to be ignorant people, or think that the natural environment and its habitants are naturally sustainable, then we are wrong, they are not. We must try and help those poor creatures of the sea. The following are possible solutions to conserve endangered turtles.
Do not visit, join, or support conservation sites that tolerate or allow hunting, don’t buy the by-products of hunting and boycott stores that sell hunting equipment or supports hunting. Write anti-hunting letters to newspapers and magazines, support campaigns to end hunting, and post your land with anti-hunting posters and signs. More importantly, spread this message out to your peers, families and friends
The problems with these solutions are in fact the lack of people and the support, and the amount of time and money needed. We are planning to increase publicity to raise the awareness. We will visit schools to inform everyone of the sea turtles crisis of extinction. We are also intending to earn the funding sponsorship of a couple of big international companies. We are hoping that our efforts will pay off and that the end of all hunting is near.
We must remember that we are not the only ones on the planet, all the places like the ocean and the beaches are very important to everyone including human and other living creatures. It doesn’t only belong to us, or to you, or to them. It belongs to the world, and we are only part of this world, we shouldn’t do things to harm it, not the environment, not the animals. Let’s keep the natural harmony.
