The Battle for the Turtles Still Exists!

Do you know what water pollution is? Have you heard of 'save the turtles?' That stuff about straws and turtles happened so long ago that I bet most people assumed that the problem was fixed, once the commotion died down. But it hasn't! Water pollution is very much still a thing! Waters are still brown and green and filled with junk that people throw in! 

Water pollution is caused by people who throw litter into bodies of water, particularly oceans, but lakes and rivers all the same. Sometimes it makes the water change colour and look murky and gross. If water gets too polluted then sometimes you can't even swim in it! Water pollution also kills fish and other sea animals. They may think that the trash is food and then eat it but sometimes it's toxic or poisonous or they choke on it. 

Did you know that fish in the North Pacific ingest 12,000 to 24,000 tons of plastic every year? This can lead to intestinal injury and death! Also, this transfers the plastic up the food chain to other marine mammals and even humans! A recent study found that, at markets in California, a quarter of the fish contained plastic in their guts! Most of the plastic was found in form of plastic microfibers which means that they are in the shape of a hair or fuzz and it's really hard to see or realize they are there, but they are still just as deadly to consume. 

Do you know how many sea turtles have eaten plastic? Half of all sea turtles worldwide! And for seabirds, hundreds of thousands of them ingest plastic every year. Plastic in the stomach reduces the storage volume inside, making them unable to eat enough, causing starvation. An estimated 60% of seabirds have eaten pieces of plastic, and that number is predicted to increase to 99% by 2050! We can't let that happen. Dead seabirds are often found with plastic in their stomachs, showing just how much the amount of garbage has rapidly increased in our oceans during the past 40 years. 

A while ago there was a bustle about paper straws and saving the turtles, but once it died down, I'm guessing that most people thought that the problem was resolved. It doesn't seem very important or problematic right now, does it? But I assure you, water pollution is still a huge problem. 

Three species of sea turtles are endangered or critically endangered: greens, hawksbills, and kemp's ridleys. The other four are vulnerable: leatherbacks, loggerheads, olive ridleys, and flatbacks. 

Following are some solutions that you could try so that we can fix water pollution. 

  • Use paper or reusable straws. Plastic straws take 200 years to decompose and in Canada, 57 million plastic straws are used every day. In America, 500 million straws are used daily. These numbers are crazy! They are way too high. I hope that, together, we can lower this number. 
  • Buy a 4Ocean bracelet. 4Ocean is a company that will take a pound of plastic out of the ocean for $20. They use the plastic they make to sell bracelets for the $20 you give. Buying one of these bracelets will help clean the ocean. 
  • Pick up pollution at a beach. Have you ever seen a beach after the tide goes back out? There is so much pollution! Picking up that plastic and garbage is great for the environment. Plus, you can hang out at the beach once you're done! 
  • Share the word that water pollution isn't fixed. If we can get everyone on board to help save the oceans, that would help so much! So many people don't think that water pollution is a problem anymore, so they still put plastic in the oceans and use plastic straws. 
Thanks for reading this post! I hope you share it with your friends and consider following my blog. To follow my blog, create a Blogger account, then insert my link into the 'Reading List' section on your account. I hope you had a good Earth Day last Thursday! Please try some of these solutions because sea turtles are endangered and if the oceans don't get cleaner then they might go extinct. Together, we can change the world. 

-EarthLover24     

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