Middle-Aged Mutant Ninja Turtle-Warriors
Unless you’ve been wandering around with a carrier bag over your head for the past couple of years (which, given that plastic seems to be everywhere these days, is not an entirely implausible excuse), you can’t have failed to see the extensive press coverage about the global plastic pollution crisis we are currently facing. Indeed, I wrote a piece about this topic a few years ago, which you can read here – and the facts were shocking enough then.
Public awareness around the huge volume of plastic waste being dumped into our oceans (8 million pieces every day) is increasing, and it seemed the message was beginning to sink in, as people now habitually carry reusable bags for shopping, make greater efforts to recycle their plastic waste, and reduce their consumption of single-use plastics.
And then the pandemic happened.
Suddenly, our demand for plastic increased exponentially, as billions of people across the globe were instructed to wear masks, and sometimes gloves, in order to protect themselves from the virus.
According to a new report, humans are globally using and disposing of an estimated 129 billion face masks and 65 billion plastic gloves every single month that we deal with COVID-19.
That’s almost 200 BILLION plastic items every month in PPE – completely aside from our regular plastic waste.
Recent research has shown that Brits alone are sending 1.6
Unsurprisingly, the impact of this huge need for face coverings can already be seen in our oceans, where discarded masks (mostly made from plastics that can take decades to hundreds of years to break down) can be seen floating on the surface like jellyfish and littering shorelines around the world.
And if you thought the pandemic was stressful for us humans, spare a thought for the marine creatures desperately attempting to survive in a sea of our filthy swirling waste.
If we consider a virus with a 0.01% fatality rate (deaths vs world’s population) to be a global emergency, think of the 100 million sea creatures killed each year by our discarded plastic .
So far COVID-19 has claimed the lives of around 1.2m people worldwide (in a global population of 7.8 billion which, whilst greatly concerning, is a drop in the ocean compared to the number of animals whose deaths we’ve caused. And that’s just the marine deaths that have been recorded – the true figure will be far higher. (If you think the recording of coronavirus deaths is inaccurate, you can only guess at the inaccuracy of the reporting of animal deaths, which gains far fewer headlines.)
One particular animal which has been affected by these vast quantities of plastic polluting our oceans is the turtle. Six out of seven species of marine turtle are listed as critically endangered, with estimates ranging from only 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 10,000 hatchlings reaching sexual maturity. They are constantly ingesting the plastic that is mixed with their dietary items throughout their lives, which claims the life of many turtles, particularly juveniles whose digestive tracts are smaller.
Of those that do make it to adulthood, they have to physically battle through the litter in the sea and on the beach to lay their eggs. Another obstacle for the turtles to negotiate is sargassum, a type of seaweed also referred to as the floating rainforest. Out in the open
The sun beats down on this lethal combination of micro-plastics and sargassum. These small pieces of plastic less than 5mm in length leach toxic chemicals into the turtles’
Assuming the hatchlings withstand this fraught start in life and attempt to make it back the ocean, they are then faced with crossing these huge barriers of steaming, stinking toxic debris whilst being baked by the boiling sun and exposed to predators such as vultures and other birds waiting to pluck them from the beach as easy prey.
And we thought us humans had problems!
Wearing a (reusable!) mask and washing our hands seems like a small ask in our fight against the virus (which is a sickness of our own making, caused by humans, after all) compared with the daily battles being fought by these animals through no fault of their own (again, the blame lies squarely with humankind).
So what can we do about it? Well, seeing as we created this issue for our oceans, surely it’s down to us to fix it? Two people who are passionate about doing their bit to help these desperate creatures are the appropriately named Angela Warrior and Lisa Good, a philanthropic pair of eco-warriors fighting for the future of our oceans.
Angela is a marine biologist living in Mexico, where she witnesses first hand the plight of these amazing creatures. On the Mexico Caribbean there is a beautiful marine reserve named Sian Ka’an, whose name means “a place where heaven begins.” Every night, May to November, hundreds of female nesting turtles crawl up the beach to lay their eggs. Sadly, due to the conditions described above, Sian Ka’an is no longer heavenly, as it is covered in mountains of plastic debris and marine algae. Angela is on a mission to fix this, along with her good friend Lisa, founder of Pure Sea, a charity to raise awareness and funds for reducing the plastic in our oceans.
Angela’s plan is to make thrice-weekly beach cleans representing Pure Sea in collaboration with Mar Amor, a local non-profit organisation, to ensure there is enough space for females to nest, and build hatcheries along the beach to protect the nests from being smothered in sargassum.
She will also set up a turtle “camp” with volunteers patrolling the beach to collect Hawksbill turtle eggs (since this species is critically endangered), place them in the hatcheries, and clear channels on the beach for the hatchlings to make their way to the ocean free of obstruction.
For other species, such as green and Loggerhead turtles, she will leave the nests in-situ (leaving the eggs where they were laid), but will apply wire mesh around the nests to protect them from predators; cleaning them regularly to remove accumulated rubbish and sargassum.
Her final part of this robust 5-point plan is to bring children from local schools to assist with the cleans and educate them about marine pollution and how it relates to the wellbeing of our oceans and marine life.
Lisa, meanwhile, has been hosting regular beach cleans and fundraisers here in the UK since launching Pure Sea in 2018, and continues to do so (virus-permitting!), as well promoting the use of reusable masks (you can contact Lisa here to order your Pure Sea mask and pay/donate here ), and visiting local schools as part of her Little Ripples project.
Together, they make a formidable team.
They are raising funds via a sponsored skydive, which is planned for April 2021 (despite Angela’s fear of heights!). Their plan is to dress as turtles for a tandem jump, shouting “Cowabungaaaaaaa!” as they throw themselves from the aircraft at 12,000ft. Now I’m sure that alone will have people lining up to pay good money to see.
If you have been moved by the plight of these precious turtles and inspired by this pair of middle-aged mutant ninja turtle-warriors, please click the link below to sponsor their skydive and contribute to this very worthy campaign.
That would be turtley awesome, dudes!
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/angela-warrior-1
Sam x
Fancy reading my back-story before you go any further? You can find my other blogs at:
www.costaricachica1.blogspot.com
www.ifyouboozeyoulose.blogspot.com
www.samgoessolo.blogspot.com
www.mummymission.blogspot.com
www.worldwidewalsh.blogspot.com
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