Preserving Marine Ecosystems: World Turtle Day
Only 9% of plastic ever produced has been recycled. The rest end up burned, buried, or polluting natural environments. Approximately 11 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans each year. Equivalent to dumping 2,000 garbage trucks of plastic into the world’s waterways every day.
This rising tide of plastic pollution has had drastic impacts on marine wildlife, including turtles, which populate the coastline near Mombasa. According to the Ocean Conservancy, plastic ingestion is responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 marine animals every year. Turtles confuse plastic pollution with one of their crucial food sources, jellyfish, placing them at high risk.
The world’s population of turtles has decreased by 80% over the last 50 years, threatened by plastic pollution in addition to overfishing, coastal developments, and poaching. Turtles are frequently caught in fishing nets accidentally but are also hunted deliberately for their economic value. Sea turtles are caught and sold for their meat, oil, skin, and shells.
When turtles reach adulthood they return to the identical area where they were born to mate and lay eggs. Turtles can detect the invisible lines of the magnetic field that affect their return to their original habitat, functioning as an internal GPS to aid their navigation. Coastal developments have prevented turtles from returning to the areas they were born, with hotels and apartment buildings built right up to the sea line.
Marine ecosystems are more vulnerable to pollution and climate change than freshwater environments. Rising global temperatures are especially problematic for turtle populations. The gender of turtle hatchlings is influenced by the temperature where the eggs were deposited, with female hatchlings more likely to temperature rises. Female bias in primary sex ratios has now been documented across all marine turtle species and is set to create reproduction issues in the future.
The threats to turtle populations are set to have ripple effects across entire marine ecosystems. Turtles play a critical role in aquatic habitat protection, keeping the number of jellyfish and crustaceans in check to retain balance, and preserving coral reefs by feeding on sponges that would otherwise overtake and destroy the fragile coral ecosystem. Marine turtles also play an important role in the transfer of nutrients from water to land, especially in coastal dune ecosystems.
Protecting turtle populations will involve more concerted efforts at a global scale to reduce plastic pollution and place stronger restrictions around coastal developments. Haller Kenya is involved at a local scale in turtle conservation, organising beach cleanups to remove plastic and other waste from the ecosystem and helping release hatchlings to improve their chances of survival.
Last month, the team joined KWS officers to release 80 turtle hatchlings alongside Haller Library pupils. The effort also educates the next generation about the importance of turtle conservation and the role turtles can play in helping to protect fragile marine ecosystems.
You can support our efforts through donations, and sharing our mission with your network.
