Reduce your carbon footprint! Climate change affects the health of coral reefs and are vital to the hawksbills survival. A warming planet also skews sex ratios in baby turtles, changes the abundance and distribution of prey, increases erosion of nesting beaches, and more. Click to learn some ways to reduce your carbon footprint.
Choose responsibly caught seafood. Sea turtles are vulnerable to commercial fishing methods like trawling, longlines, and drift gillnets, and sadly become bycatch. To help make turtle friendly seafood choices click here for the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch and download their app.
NO to plastics. Sea turtles and marine life mistake plastic as food and ingest it. An
estimated that more than 100 million marine animals die each year as a result of eating or getting entangled in plastic. Avoid using disposable plastic bags, bottles, and single-use plastic straws and utensils. Take the No Straw November pledge.
Leave No Trace Anywhere, especially at beaches, rivers and waterways. When visiting the ocean, pickup your trash and any obstacles that may become hazards for nesting sea turtles and hatchlings. We all need clean beaches and this is especially important to turtles.
Helium balloons can hurt animals like birds and sea turtles. These balloons look a lot like plastic bags and can be mistaken for jellyfish. Click here to learn more about balloons.
Choose sunscreen carefully. Chemicals in some types of sunscreen can damage coral reefs and pollute turtle habitat. Avoid any sunscreen with oxybenzone and look for brands labeled as Reef Friendly and avoid sprays that can pollute the sand where turtles nest. Click here to read more on safe sunblock.
