How you can help save turtles

There are so many threats to sea turtles and all marine species due to human impacts.  I wanted to make a video that highlighted some of these impacts and also talked about a bit about my research.  I also wanted to blog a bit about some suggestions and tips on how to leave less of an impact on the Earth. I hope you enjoy!  And don’t forget to check out this post about how to be an better environmental steward.

Below is a list of some major anthropogenic (human-caused) threats to sea turtles and how you can reduce your impact:

1. Consumption and illegal trade of eggs, meat, and shells

This is probably the easiest and most straightforward way to reduce pressure on sea turtle populations… don’t eat turtle eggs/meat and never buy “authentic tourtoiseshell” products. Actually never buy any products containing parts of an animal (even shark tooth necklaces-but the fossilized black ones are okay). Buying these products create a demand that leads to the killing of these animals.

The consumption of turtle meat/eggs is probably more common than you might think.  While I was walking around markets in Terrenganu, I came across countless stalls selling turtle eggs.  This is mainly consumed by locals, but often time toutists see these for sale and think to themselves “yes-while I am traveling I want to experience as much as possible and try all kinds of new foods” but it is so crucial to consider the larger impact your actions have.

2. Coastal development

Increasing human populations on the coastline interferes with many lifestages of sea turtles.  For example, light pollution on beaches is disorienting to nesting monthers and hatchlings.  This light can attract the turtles and they will end up heading inland instead of towards the sea. If you live alone the coast near a turtle nesting beach, make sure to switch off your lights, and encourage your neighbors to do so too!

In addition, boatstrikes are a major problem. Since turtles breathe air, they often come to the surface. If you are fishing or recreating, make sure you drive slow and pay attention- especially in areas with a high abundance of turtles.

3. Entanglement in fishing gear

Accidental bycatch is a major issue in our oceans. Approximately 40% of all animals caught in fisheries are discarded as trash, usually dead. Sea turtles, particularly greens, loggerheads, olive ridley’s, and leatherbacks are attracted to the bait and get caught on the hooks or become entangled in the lines and drown. The best way to ensure you are not leading to this issue is to avoid consumption of seafood. There are very few (if any) sustainable fisheries, so the best thing you can do to reduce your impact on marine animals is to avoid seafood all together, or at least reduce consumption.

4. Plastic and other marine debris

In a study recently published, plastic was found in the digestive tract of every sea turtle analyzed.  Recently, I did a necropsy of a sea turtle found stranded at KAUST.  It was a beautiful hawksbill turtle with over 5 m of fishing line throughout its digestive tract. The line wrapped around it’s flipper so tight that the skin broke, and it went through the turtle’s mouth all the way through its body and out its cloaca.  It was horrible. Anyway plastic is a major issue concerning every living entity in the ocean.📷

The most obvious single-use swaps include bringing a tupperware to take out restaurants, investing in a reusable waterbottle and straw, and bringing a reusable bag everywhere you go.

As many of you might know, I have an actual obsession with Lush Cosmetics.  It is on the pricier side but it is so worth it. I will make a separate blog post in the future, but for now, I just suggest you take a peak at their “naked” products- which have no packaging at all. My favorites include the solid deodorant called Aromaco, the solid shampoos are amazing, my favorite is trichnomania, I love the solid soaps, they smell incredible (my faves are this sweet honey soap and outback mate soap. Lastly, the solid facial products are great, such as coalface soap, sleepy cleanser, and amazon primer facial oil. They are incredible I highly recommend. You can bring back five of Lush’s black pots to the store to redeem a fresh face mask.  And I also always reduce the other plastic pots, as you can see below.

5. Global warming

My entire Master’s thesis was about how rising temperatures can impact turtles. The temperature determines the sex off hatchlings, so rising nest temperatures lead to more females being born, in some places of the world the sex ratio is already 99% females. The best way to reduce your carbon and methane emissions (which are major global warming contributors), are to be mindful of your meat consumption, and your carbon emissions. Obviously I love to travel (which has a huge carbon footprint) so I have decided to completely cut meat out of my diet, and drastically reduce egg and dairy.  I also bike or walk to work everyday and carpool when possible.

The link between your plastic waste and sea turtles

Author: Charlotte Young, Reef Ecology Lab Intern

A hawksbill turtle mistakes a plastic bag as a jellyfish. Photo by Richard Carey

Over the last century, plastic has become one of the most popular resources used worldwide for just about everything; packaging, manufacturing, clothing, cosmetics, even money. In fact, its global popularity means it’s become increasing difficult to avoid and as a consequence not only our lives but our oceans are drowning in it.

Plastic pollution is now considered one of the biggest threats facing our marine environment. And rightly so. Even our deep seas are plagued with plastic and its inhabitants added to the list of those species documented to have ingested it. Its sheer abundance means that wildlife readily come in to contact with plastic, even utilising it in things such as nest building.

Despite the doom and gloom, there are shimmers of hope. Here in the Red Sea we are considered one of the least plastic polluted regions with as little as 3,546 ± 8,154 plastic items km-2 documented in surface waters (Marti, et al. 2017). This is contributed to by the lack of freshwater inputs as Saudi has no natural rivers which are known to be significant sources of plastic transport to the ocean.

However, despite its relative low abundance, poor waste management in Saudi means that many of the beaches are littered with plastic, both macro and micro debris. Beaches are important intertidal habitats for a number of marine organisms, but in the Red Sea, beaches are of particular importance to one of the oceans most charismatic species, Sea Turtles.

Nesting on beaches during the summer months, eggs are incubated in the sand for a duration of 60 days and like other reptiles, it is the temperature of the sand which will determine the sex of the hatchlings. Variations in sand temperature are usual, however, high plastic content can change the thermal conditions of the sand and skew hatchling sex ratios to that of predominantly females (88 F for females, 82 F for males).

In a bid to understand how turtle populations in the Red Sea may be affected, Lyndsey, a former masters and now PhD candidate in the lab is on a mission to assess just how polluted turtle nesting sites are in this region.

To do this, Lydnsey, Kirsty (MSc Student looking at sand moisture in turtle nesting beaches) and I have to dig dummie nests, taking sand samples every 20 – 30 cm down to a total depth of 60 cm (the average depth of most turtle nests). This then gives us an idea how much plastic is in the sand, but also the proportions of debris at different depths.

Despite the alluring attraction of doing work with this species, the reality of the job is that it’s hard work! With daily temperatures reaching as high as 107°F during summer months, working conditions can be testing. But the importance of such work outweighs the tough days in the field as turtles are considered one of the most heavily impacted species by a number of different forms of plastic pollution (Wilcox, et al. 2016).

It’s not only plastic on beaches that poses a problem for turtles. During a recent fieldwork trip Lyndsey found a dead Hawksbill with some fishing line wrapped around its flipper. To understand what may have caused its death she took it back to the lab for stomach content analysis. What she found shocked us all. Over 5 m of fishing line was found in this animals stomach and gut. Completely in tacked, this poor creature had likely starved to death after eating such a large quantity of plastic which will have no doubt caused problems for it eating and digesting food.

Although shocking, this is not an isolated case. Turtles around the world are at high risk of plastic ingestion due to their normal feeding habits. Turtles will often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, a normal prey source, and often become entangled in fishing gear which, as in this case, also has the potential to be ingested.

How this animal truly ended up with such a high volume of fishing line in its stomach we will never know, but as we move forward with our fight against plastic, it is important that each and every one of us takes responsibility for our use and appropriate disposal of our waste. As the tide on plastic is turning, more and more alternatives to are being made available. It’s important that as guardians of our oceans, we make these small changes, because it is collective action like this which can stop the plastic tap.