Sea Turtles

This morning I woke to the most AWESOME email.... I was so excited by what I read that I almost called my mom at 6:15 (she's CST and I'm EST).... instead, I decided to let my mom sleep and hold in my excitement for another hour.... when I finally called her, I'm not sure that I even said "good morning" when she answered her phone.  Instead, I said, "We're going to a sea turtle release today!!!!!"

The sea turtle releases were held at Topsail Beach, NC by the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center.  I am beyond grateful for that email I received this morning... because I have ALWAYS wanted to witness sea turtles be released... 

Seeing those turtles flapping their flippers... in obvious excitement to go home... it's like the ocean was calling them and they were waving, "Here we come."

I LOVE sea turtles...and they're only one of the millions of reasons that I LOVE the ocean... and one of the reasons that we should all work to clean, restore and protect our oceans... 

Want to help sea turtles???  There are easy things that we can ALL do and it has to do with plastics.

The plastic in our oceans is killing thousands of sea turtles and marine mammals each year. Help decrease the amount of plastic that is put in our oceans by adopting habits that exclude plastics. 

#1.  Realize that "disposable" does NOT mean "goes away."  Everything that we create, especially things that are made of plastic, stay on this Earth FOREVER.

#2.  Say "NO thank you" to plastic bags.  Plastic bags BLOW!!  If you don't take one... it never has a chance to reach the ocean.  (Yes, this matters even if you live in Iowa ;) )

#3.  Reduce the amount of plastic that we use.  Buy in bulk, bring containers (don't take plastic bags!), stop purchasing single serve products, ditch straws...

#4.  NEVER (under any circumstances) release balloons.  Sure it looks cool when the balloons float up into the sky... it looks like they'll float to space.  BUT... they don't.  They always fall back to land... and balloons look like a sea turtle's favorite food:  jellyfish.  (Be sure to check out the link for some pics of a sea turtle that ingested balloons)   The awesome volunteers of WB Sea Turtle Project have some great ideas for celebrating (or honoring a memory) without the releasing of balloons.  Check it out here:  WB Sea Turtle Project blog 

#5.  If you see a piece of litter pick it up.  Never expect that someone else will get it... you are that someone else.  Pick it up and put it where it belongs.  Oh yeah, don't litter either ;)