Saving the Sea Turtles

Figure 1: Sammy the Sea Turtle

Hi there! I'm Sammy the Sea Turtle. My friends and I love swimming around our ocean home all day. We play games, go to school, and eat together. One of our favorite snacks is jellyfish! Jellyfish are easy to eat and give us plenty of nutrition. Plus they're super yummy and fun to chase after! But sometimes we make mistakes when we're catching jellyfish and grab plastic bags by accident. Imagine going to eat a sandwich and accidentally eating the baggie! It happens a lot, but there are ways that we can use less plastic so that we can catch more jellyfish instead.

Uh Oh! Plastic Ahead! 

The problem with ingesting, or eating, the plastic bags in Figure 2 is that they mess with our digestive systems (2). A digestive system is how we break up the food we eat. When our digestive systems aren't working, we can't eat the food we need to survive. Plastic bags block our digestive systems from letting any more food in. Since we can't eat anything, we die from starvation (3). 

Figure 2: Plastic bags or Jellyfish?

So why do my friends and I eat plastic bags?

We eat the plastic bags because they look just like jellyfish! Plastic bags are in the ocean because they are non biodegradable. Non biodegradable means that the plastic cannot break down naturally. So when plastic ends up in the ocean, it usually stays there for hundreds of years (1). That means the plastic that my Grandma swam through is still in the ocean! 

But It's Not Just Bags...

This problem isn't just plastic bags; it's all of the plastic things that humans use daily, like water bottles, food wrappers, plastic forks, and plastic cups! When you throw away something plastic, it has a good chance of ending up in my ocean home. Almost 8 million tons of plastic are in the ocean, which could fill one football stadium every single day (1)! Swimming through all this plastic makes my life harder because I might get tangled or eat the wrong thing. But you guys can help my friends and I by using less plastic.   

How to help

One of the easiest ways to help my friends and me is by not using bottled water! Plastic water bottles also are packaged in more plastic, which is just more waste. An easy solution is to use a stainless steel bottle or even a reusable plastic bottle (4). Even though the reusable plastic bottle is still plastic, it lasts much longer than bottled water that you can buy in a store! 

Another way to help is to encourage your parents to bring reusable shopping bags. When your mom or dad takes you food shopping, you can help save me from accidentally eating the plastic bags the store gives you! Reusable shopping bags are usually made out of cloth, but sometimes they are made out of recycled plastic (4)! 

You can also help by bringing your own forks and spoons to school lunch instead of using the plastic ones they give you (4). Just keep them in your backpack and wash them when you get home! 

Figure 3: Goodbye everybody!

There are so many other ways that you and your friends can help save the sea turtles, but these ideas are a great way to get started! My friends and I are super happy when we have plenty of yummy jellyfish instead of plastic bags. In fact, my friends just found some so I've gotta go! Goodbye everybody!

For more ways to reduce your plastic waste, watch this video from BASF: LEARN MORE









References

(1) Le Guern, C. (2018, March). When the mermaids cry: The great plastic tide. Retrieved from Coastal Care website: http://plastic-pollution.org

(2) See Turtles. (n.d.). Ocean plastic and sea turtles. Retrieved from See Turtles website: http://www.seeturtles.org/ocean-plastic/

(3) Clearwater Marine Aquarium. (2018, February). Why plastic is a problem for sea turtles and the ocean. Retrieved from Clearwater Marine Aquarium website: https://www.seewinter.com/plastic-problem-inside-sea-turtles/

(4) Terry, B. (2018). 100 steps to a plastic free life [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://myplasticfreelife.com/plasticfreeguide/