sea turtle
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Sea turtles
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They have roamed the oceans for 100 million years. They live all over the world from warm waters like the Coral Triangle to the cold waters of California.
The males remain in the ocean while the females enter the beaches during the nesting season.
A leatherback sea turtle is capable of swimming 19,300 km from Papua in Indonesia to the northwest coast of the US, and back. They are excellent swimmers!
About sea turtles
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Sea turtles survived the extinction of the dinosaurs. But now, they live under a growing threat.
Each sea turtle helps transport an average of 34,000 organisms such as shrimp and crustacean larvae in its shell during its migration. Sea turtles lay 65 to 180 eggs in each clutch. And each season they lay two to six clutches.
Like humans, sea turtles breathe oxygen. Unlike us, however, they can spend up to two hours underwater before having to surface to breathe.
Sea turtles can also drink salty water by excreting the extra salt through "salt glands" behind their eyes. So if it looks like it's crying, don't worry, it's just getting rid of that extra salt!
Leatherbacks are the largest sea turtles in the ocean, growing up to 2 meters long and weighing more than 907 kilos.
Their size isn't their only distinguishing feature, these turtles get their name from their soft, leathery, bluish-black skin.
Unlike other sea turtles that have hard outer shells, leatherbacks have soft, rubbery backs. In addition, they are the most migratory and widely distributed species of sea turtles.
They are found in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and are known to swim more than 10,000 miles per year.
Between 500,000 and 1 million tons of fishing waste enter the sea each year.
Ghost fishing is indiscriminate, seriously affecting all marine animals, from fish populations to marine megafauna. It is estimated that between 5% and 30% of catchable fish will suffer from the effects of fishing gear and it will have a great impact on livelihoods, food security and livelihoods.
They also cause and spread toxic chemical pollution that continues in the oceans, causing health problems for fishermen and divers. Cleaning the seas and oceans of ghost nets costs millions of euros that can be perfectly used for the conservation of endangered marine species and their protection. Fishing gear alters habitats, deteriorating marine ecosystems, which in turn affects the conservation of marine fauna.
Where do ghost nets come from?
Normally, they end up in the sea due to obstacles in the rocks or needles under the surface of the sea, entanglement with other fishing equipment once deployed, when accidentally released by crossing with other means of marine traffic that sails above it. and for security reasons when there are tempests, storms or strong winds that force the fishermen to get rid of them.
Ghost fishing nets
We call fishing equipment made of plastic abandoned, lost or thrown into the sea "ghost nets". They threaten marine life and have brought the vaquita to the brink of extinction, only 10 of them remain.
They are the deadliest plastic litter for marine animals, they are a real and terrifying threat for centuries.
No Jellyfish Shammer
Jellyfish are among the preferred food sources for sea turtles. For this reason, they have scales that protect them from their venom. However, a plastic bag floating in the sea is very easily mistaken for a jellyfish.
52% of sea turtles around the world have ingested plastic. It rises to 62% in the case of green turtles. According to research, up to 22% of sea turtles that ingest just 1 piece of plastic die.
Plastic bags - jellyfish impostors or "jellyfish shammers" - cause intestinal obstructions and starvation in the body of sea turtles, preventing them from feeding. If it survives, consuming plastic debris causes it to float abnormally, which can stunt its growth and affect its reproductive rates.
1 million plastic bags are used every minute. Globally, 100 million barrels of oil are used to make plastic bags. Less than 5% of plastic bags are recycled worldwide. Under the worst conditions, plastic bags can take up to a thousand years to degrade by nature.
I raise awareness for people around me to replace plastic bags with reusable ones and create greener upcycled bags from ripped or worn t-shirts to clean up the ocean and nature while taking action against fast fashion.
The Sea or the Straw
According to 'Science', more than eight billion straws pollute beaches around the world. Plastic straws: thirteen million every day. Spain is the European record country with the most straws per inhabitant per year.
Do not take plastic straws and prevent sea turtles from suffering from them.
They are a few minutes in our hands and 500 years in the oceans.
More than a million birds and more than 100,000 marine mammals die every year as a result of all the plastic that reaches the sea.
Only with those distributed in fast food restaurants in the EU in a single year could go and return to the moon 10 times if we put them in a row.
I raise awareness about the environmental impact of plastic straws on the oceans and marine animals and promote sustainable solutions and alternatives to this disposable nonsense that has been polluting the seas and killing marine mammals and birds for centuries.
Sea turtles want to break free
Ghost nets - fishing gear made of plastic abandoned, lost or thrown into the sea - threaten marine life and have driven the vaquita to the brink of extinction, only 10 remain. They are the deadliest plastic litter for marine animals, they are a real and terrifying threat for centuries. Between 500,000 and 1 million tons of fishing waste enter the sea each year.
Ghost fishing is indiscriminate, seriously affecting all marine animals, from fish populations to marine megafauna. It is estimated that between 5% and 30% of catchable fish will suffer from the effects of fishing gear and it will have a great impact on livelihoods, food security and livelihoods.
They also cause and spread toxic chemical pollution that continues in the oceans, causing health problems for fishermen and divers. Cleaning the seas and oceans of ghost nets costs millions of euros that can be perfectly used for the conservation of endangered marine species and their protection. Fishing gear alters habitats, deteriorating marine ecosystems, which in turn affects the conservation of marine fauna.
Where do ghost nets come from?
Normally, they end up in the sea due to obstacles in the rocks or needles under the surface of the sea, entanglement with other fishing equipment once deployed, when accidentally released by crossing with other means of marine traffic that sails above it. and for security reasons when there are tempests, storms or strong winds that force the fishermen to get rid of them.
Some ghost net equipment does not degrade for up to 600 years, taking countless lives through suffocation and exhaustion when caught. Finally they become microplastics that affect the food chain and end up on our plates, which will harm our health. When a ghost net has killed a marine animal, it begins to decompose and releases a scent that brings in other predators and begins a deadly cycle that can continue for hundreds of years.
At least 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is fishing gear. It measures 2 times the size of Texas. 79,000 tons of plastic floating on the ocean, from macroplastics like fishing nets to a massive amount of microplastics polluting the water. Tens and hundreds of kilos of plastic are concentrated in a single square meter.
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