The Human Impact on Sea Turtles
By: Zoe Webber
Imagine, you go to the beach, and it’s a normal day. The beach is quiet, the ocean making noises only ants can hear. You stand in the same place, as the world’s tide moves slowly. All is going well on shore, but not in the water. A ear blowing noise comes out of the ocean. A boat comes out of nowhere, a dark black liquid follows it, and so does trash. Then a dark green head pops out of the water screaming in pain. You notice a shell on it’s back. It’s a baby sea turtle trapped in plastic rings! The baby sea turtle starts to sink into the water’s ground. This is human impact on sea turtles. It can get really scary for other animals too, but this animal needs our help the most out of all of the animals.
What we do
Do you like shellfish at the bottom of your feet? Nibbling and hurting your feet when you’re trying to have fun in the ocean. Well sea turtles can help us with this. They eat them so we don't have to worry, but the payback they get isn't so nice. We hunt for them when we are not allowed to do it. If we continue our ways, it can lead to where we have a world without sea turtles. Then we’ll be so busy with all the shellfish biting us when we are trying to have fun. Our impact is huge when it comes to the bad things we do. It's really small when we try to do something good because we never do.
Sea Turtle Pollution
Pollution goes to sea turtles a lot. According to sea turtle abounds, sea turtles are found stuck inside trash (plastic rings, plastic bags, etc) alive or dead. Which can lead to an unhappy sea turtle. Oil is a type of pollution that is really dangerous because oil can get on their food (seaweed, shellfish) and they'll come over and eat their food. Next thing you know, the sea turtle will get sick, or even worse die.
Hunting For Sea Turtles
According to sea turtle abounds, people have been hunting for turtles for over 30 years. So this is really important because if we continue to do this sea turtles could become extinct forever. One thing humans take is their shell. A sea turtle can't live without their shell. Sometimes we fish sea turtles on purpose and sometimes it's not on purpose.
Humans Take More Than We Need
According to sea turtle abounds, humans take a lot from sea turtles. For example, we take a lot of their home away, we their food away, and we take their lives away. What happens is when we fish were taking their food away too, and when our impact strikes on the ocean it hurts their home.
Erosion
According to sea turtle abounds, erosion is one of the hardest phases for a baby sea turtle. (erosion for baby sea turtle is right after it gets out of it's eggs and goes into the ocean.) when we turn on our lights it blinds the sea turtles, and when we blind on the dunes it makes it hard to lay the eggs. What happens is the mama lays them too close to the predators.
Scientist’s Observation
According to CDC expert, Timothy Dignum, lead is very poisonous to humans. Lead is a type of metal. We used it as line pipes a long time ago, but it really hurts sea turtles. What happens is it might end up somewhere that's close and land on them. The the poison will go into the lungs and kill the sea turtle.
How We Can Help
We can help by recycling more. We can help by cleaning up the beach more. We can also cut up our trash, so if it ends up in the ocean it won't hurt them. There are about a million ways that we can help sea turtles. Now think, this is your story, so go out there and make changes.
By: Zoe Webber
Imagine, you go to the beach, and it’s a normal day. The beach is quiet, the ocean making noises only ants can hear. You stand in the same place, as the world’s tide moves slowly. All is going well on shore, but not in the water. A ear blowing noise comes out of the ocean. A boat comes out of nowhere, a dark black liquid follows it, and so does trash. Then a dark green head pops out of the water screaming in pain. You notice a shell on it’s back. It’s a baby sea turtle trapped in plastic rings! The baby sea turtle starts to sink into the water’s ground. This is human impact on sea turtles. It can get really scary for other animals too, but this animal needs our help the most out of all of the animals.
What we do
Do you like shellfish at the bottom of your feet? Nibbling and hurting your feet when you’re trying to have fun in the ocean. Well sea turtles can help us with this. They eat them so we don't have to worry, but the payback they get isn't so nice. We hunt for them when we are not allowed to do it. If we continue our ways, it can lead to where we have a world without sea turtles. Then we’ll be so busy with all the shellfish biting us when we are trying to have fun. Our impact is huge when it comes to the bad things we do. It's really small when we try to do something good because we never do.
Sea Turtle Pollution
Pollution goes to sea turtles a lot. According to sea turtle abounds, sea turtles are found stuck inside trash (plastic rings, plastic bags, etc) alive or dead. Which can lead to an unhappy sea turtle. Oil is a type of pollution that is really dangerous because oil can get on their food (seaweed, shellfish) and they'll come over and eat their food. Next thing you know, the sea turtle will get sick, or even worse die.
Hunting For Sea Turtles
According to sea turtle abounds, people have been hunting for turtles for over 30 years. So this is really important because if we continue to do this sea turtles could become extinct forever. One thing humans take is their shell. A sea turtle can't live without their shell. Sometimes we fish sea turtles on purpose and sometimes it's not on purpose.
Humans Take More Than We Need
According to sea turtle abounds, humans take a lot from sea turtles. For example, we take a lot of their home away, we their food away, and we take their lives away. What happens is when we fish were taking their food away too, and when our impact strikes on the ocean it hurts their home.
Erosion
According to sea turtle abounds, erosion is one of the hardest phases for a baby sea turtle. (erosion for baby sea turtle is right after it gets out of it's eggs and goes into the ocean.) when we turn on our lights it blinds the sea turtles, and when we blind on the dunes it makes it hard to lay the eggs. What happens is the mama lays them too close to the predators.
Scientist’s Observation
According to CDC expert, Timothy Dignum, lead is very poisonous to humans. Lead is a type of metal. We used it as line pipes a long time ago, but it really hurts sea turtles. What happens is it might end up somewhere that's close and land on them. The the poison will go into the lungs and kill the sea turtle.
How We Can Help
We can help by recycling more. We can help by cleaning up the beach more. We can also cut up our trash, so if it ends up in the ocean it won't hurt them. There are about a million ways that we can help sea turtles. Now think, this is your story, so go out there and make changes.