Bag the Plastic

In the spring of 2006 my family and I traveled to the Hawaiian island of Kauai. We lounged at the beach, went to a luau, kayaked to a hidden water fall, and had a generally good time. Yet perhaps my favorite moment on vacation was swimming with the sea turtles off of the cliffs of the Napali Coast. Swimming with the beautiful creatures was an exhilarating moment and something I will not likely forget. What I did not realize then was the rough life a sea turtle lives. Of the seven species of marine turtles, six are listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered. Unfortunately, turtles are plagued by fishing and plastic consumption, particularly in the form of grocery bags. When grocery bags reach the ocean, the turtles mistake them for their favorite food, jellyfish. When sea turtles consume the plastic bags, they often get lodged in their stomachs making it seem like they are not hungry, and eventually causing them to die of starvation. When sea turtles die they upset the ecosystem because of their vital role of controlling prey species and providing food for larger predators. Marine turtles are also economically important to humans. Developing countries use sea turtles for food. They are also vital to the fish population consumed all around the world. So how can you help? These solutions from seaturtles.org are easy and effective:
1. Realize that "disposable" does not mean "goes away." Everything we create, especially things that are made of plastic, stay on this earth forever.
2. Reduce the amount of plastic that we use. Instead we can use glass bottle, reusable grocery and produce bags, and avoid plastic packaging as much as possible.
3. Make sure to recycle any plastic that we cannot avoid using.
4. Clean up any litter in the street, especially plastic litter. 80% of plastic in the ocean comes from urban runoff such as flyaway plastic bags.
5. Pressure companies that you like shopping from to switch to bio-plastics or other non-plastic packaging. Write them a letter saying that you will boycott their products until there are changes. Convince your friends of family to do it also!
6. Write to your congressman and ask that there be action taken. Push for bills that reduce the manufacturing of plastics, support plastic recycling, encourage research into plastic alternatives and support the implementation of those alternatives.
7. If you can, donate to organizations that are working hard to put a stop to this problem. Algalita Marine Research Foundation, Ocean Alliance, Center for Ocean Solutions and Green Sangha are all working to reduce the amount of plastics going into our oceans.
8. Most importantly, tell everyone! Let people know that this is a serious problem and encourage your friends and family to also adopt these methods of reducing waste.
Or check out this blog at http://savetheseaturtle.org/index.php?page_id=225.