Saving the Sea Turtle: What you can do
Hearing about the ways in which sea turtles are typically slaughtered, you may not believe there is much you can do. If you don’t work a shrimp boat or live within access to sea turtle nesting grounds, its hard to imagine how you might have an impact on a problem that seems so far away. But there are always ways you can help, even if your closest ocean is thousands of miles away. Here is a list of ways anyone can help save these amazing endangered creatures.
Adopt a Turtle: Obviously you can’t just go to the beach and take home your very own sea turtle, so by adoption I am not referring to the kind of adoption one might partake in with a cat or dog. The adoption I’m referring to is more like a ‘sponsorship’ of sorts. Many ocean conservation and animal welfare organizations now have programs wherein for a donation you can get some very cool information about a turtle you’ve sponsored and help protect that very turtle from human predators. Besides, where would you fit a 6 foot reptile, anyways?
Some great turtle adoption/sponsorship programs:
Watamu Turtle Watch: This site (out of Kenya) offers the ability to either adopt a sea turtle nest (full of un-hatched eggs!) or a turtle rescued from the net of a fisherman. The price is very reasonable (only $25) and with that fee you get a certificate of adoption with info about the mother turtle, an egg count, an update to how many eggs hatched in your nest, a choice of a sea turtle key ring, pendant or bookmark (made by Kenyan artisans) and a sea turtle poster. You may also adopt a turtle for release for the same price, but instead of the egg count you get to name your turtle, and if your turtle is recaptured in the future you will receive notification. This charity works by paying fishermen a bounty for collected turtles as an incentive to turn the usually-injured turtles in to the charity so they can be rehabilitated.
Other sites that adopt nests:
www.cmaquarium.org
www.coastaldiscovery.org
www.turtlepatrol.com
www.turtles.org
www.wdwpublicaffairs.com
www.alabamaseaturtles.com
www.fws.gov
www.wildlifeadoption.org
www.seaturtles.org
www.turtlepatrol.com
Seaturtle.org: This charity has several different price points for people who may or may not want to invest a lot. Every bit helps, and thankfully many sites allow even those of us who don’t have a lot to give what they can at different donation levels. Of course, the more you contribute, the more you get back in ‘gifts’. The basic membership at seaturtle.org starts at $25, and includes an adoption certificate, an info sheet about your adopted turtle, and your name on the turtle’s tracking page. Donation amounts increase in increments of 25-50 dollars, with the most expensive package costing $100, which will get you (in addition to the 25 dollar gifts) a map of your turtles ‘home’ area, an 8x10 picture of your turtle, a laminated turtle identification card, and a cute 7” plush turtle toy. The perk of adopting through seaturtle.org is that you can actually pick out which turtle you want to adopt right on their homepage, so if you want to sponsor Gracie the loggerhead or Mashed Potatoes the Kemp’s Ridley, its completely up to you!
The other great thing you can do on this site is sponsor a tracked turtle which is a bit more expensive (around $5000) but pays for the transmitter that is attached to the shell and the fees associated with monitoring the turtle’s progress. With this you get a lot more involvement in the life of the turtle; you can not name the turtle, get your name in all turtle-related press releases, and get your logo on the turtle’s web page. As if that weren’t enough, you get the priceless good karma and peace of mind to know that you did something to help an innocent life prevail.
For $500 (plus the cost of travel) you can spend a week with the Wassaw National Wildlife Refuge, and actually work to save sea turtle nests. This event includes meals, transportation to and from your accommodations and accommodations. During the week you actually get to help scientists move, patrol and monitor nests. You will be required to spend long hours watching for hatchlings, even into the night, but for the experience alone it should cost ten times more, and think of the universe of good you’ll be doing for these turtle hatchlings. For more information, please contact the Caretta Research Project, 912-447-8655; or email divebuff2@aol.com
If you simply can’t afford to give any money to the cause, there are still ways you can help. For instance, if you live near sea turtle nesting grounds, the Network for Endangered Sea Turtles, or N.E.S.T has some helpful pointers, such as flattening sandcastles on turtle inhabited beaches and turning off sea facing front porch or outdoor lights if you are near a beach. N.E.S.T also offers the opportunity for those local to its headquarters in Outer Banks, NC to volunteer for activities ranging from working at the N.E.S.T gift-shop to patrolling beaches at night to watch for emerging hatchlings.
If you’re not near water or sea turtle habitats, there are free ways to help right from the comfort of your own home. Websites such as Care2 and The Animal Rescue Site work with sponsors who pledge to donate money (at no cost to you) to various animal and environmental charities every time you click a button!