Imagine a World Without Turtles!

Imagine a world without Turtles! Coming soon 🙁     Many things are killing off Turtles, all of which are associated with human activity. It is amazing to me that, when faced with this knowledge, more of us do not make greater changes in our lifestyles.

Plastics are among the worst culprits, and this problem is increasing. ScienceDaily.com gives the reason: “Sea turtles are known to mistake ocean plastics for prey, like crab or fish eggs, or in the case of larger sea turtles, floating plastic bags for jellyfish” and “The remainder of the collected turtles died and 27 of these were examined for the study. Ninety-three percent had some amount of ingested plastic particles in them, leading the team to theorize that many died due to blockages or nutritional deficiencies associated with plastic ingestion.” From Mother Nature Network: “then there’s plastic pollution. Sea turtles frequently clog their digestive tracts by eating plastic bags, which may resemble jellyfish, and have also been known to ingest things like plastic forks and straws, or to become entangled in abandoned plastic fishing line. In fact, according to one 2018 study, about half of all sea turtles on Earth have eaten plastic at some point, with younger turtles doing so more often than adults. Eating just one piece of plastic gives a turtle a roughly 22 percent chance of dying, the study found, while eating 14 pieces means a 50 percent chance of dying. Once a turtle eats more than 200 pieces of plastic, death is reportedly inevitable.”

Sea turtles everywhere are in trouble. According to Mongabay.com “Turtles are in fact among the most threatened of the major groups of vertebrates in the world, a new study says, perhaps even more so than birds, mammals, fish or amphibians. Of the 356 species of turtles recognized today, about 61 percent are either threatened or have become extinct in modern times.” The article gives more reasons, besides ingestion plastics, why Turtles are in trouble: “habitat destruction, overexploitation for food, the commercial pet trade, disease, and climate change” It’s enough to make one sad!

Cosmosmagazine.com and ScienceDaily.com list many ecosystem functions performed by turtles. Go look, you’ll be surprised.