Win a chance to release a turtle!

If you live in the Caymans, you could win a chance to release a turtle during the Cayman Turtle Farm/Boatswain’s Beach 27th annual turtle release on Friday, November 16th. Apparently, they’ve been doing this since the 1980′s and have released over 31,000 turtles into the wild. I think that’s absolutely amazing.

Due to the commercial harvesting of sea turtles in the Caymans, a population that at one time was abundant is now almost extinct. Where once there were so many turtles, that even Christoper Columbus dubbed the Cayman Islands with the name “Las Tortugas”, there are now less than 30 adult female green sea turtles nesting there each year.

Farm raised turtles are being tagged and released into the wild with successful results. The data returned by the taggin is showing that they are following the migration patterns of wild turtles, allowing them to adapt to their new environment and potentially reproduce to increase the population of sea turtles. This is the reason why the turtle release is such a great thing!

Now wouldn’t that be neat if more coastal turtle rescue hubs did just the same? I would jump at this chance in a heartbeat! Wouldn’t you?

Plastic Bags are not Turtle Food

Photo from Are You Ready? Campaign, Melbourne Zoo

Can you imagine a turtle eating a plastic bag because it thought it was a jelly fish? A look at the photo from the Melbourne Zoo shows that’s exactly what has been happening all over the world. Do a Google search for “turtle plastic bag” and you will find thousands of pages detailing how marine life, not just turtles, are suffering from our careless use and discarding of plastic waste. While I’m finding articles dating as far back as 2000, I still see plenty of present day articles and blogs discussing how this is still a very serious issue with no end in sight if we don’t get actively involved.

Now you might say that the easiest way to effect change is to request paper bags when grocery shopping. However, while paper bags degrade in a month’s time (versus the 500 to 1000 years it takes for a plastic bag to degrade), the energy usage to create that bag is enormous, not to mention that we are quickly cutting into our earth and losing all the lovely green scenery that we tend to enjoy.

So what’s the answer? Responsible consumption. That, of course, will be an individual decision and while we would all probably like to be completely green, compromises may have to be made. For me, I was already reusing the shopping bags from my grocery store trips in waste containers all over the house. I’ll be switching to using a reusable canvas tote bag to do my shopping, but still use garbage bags to dispose of my waste. Once I use all my shopping bags, I’ll probably switch to containers that don’t allow for trash to get stuck in them (right now I have wicker trash baskets in the house), so that I can dump the trash into one main bag easily. To me, it’s worth all the effort if it will help save our marine life.

If you’re interested in more information on plastic bags, their life cycle and how they are affecting turtles, marine life and our environment, please visit these resources:

• No Bags, Thanks!
• Sea Turtles Don’t Shop
• Save Sea Turtles from Extinction – Take the Plastic Bag Pledge
• Patagonia’s Oceans as Wilderness Campaign

Looking for a source of reusable bags? You can get them at Ecobags or Reusable Bags.

So what are you going to do to reduce your use of plastic bags?