How YOU can help save our marine wildlife!

_Elsa_

‘Sadly, these cute creatures are endangered, but with a little help from our friends at the Marine Conservation Society, we’re going to show you exactly what you can do to help save these incredible creatures.

Turtles in trouble - Turtles have been swimming in our oceans for at least 110 million years! But sadly, human activities threaten turtle populations all over the world. All seven species are included on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Endangered Species.

What are the threats?

• Turtles can easily become tangled up in gill nets and fish traps set inshore close to the nesting beaches. The nets aren’t there to catch turtles, but they can often get caught in massive drift nets or hooked on longlines set for tuna and swordfish by mistake.

• Marine turtles depend on a variety of habitats at sea, as well as the all-important nesting beaches. Sadly, these beaches are under pressure to develop by the tourism industry, making it difficult for turtles to breed

Ocean pollution is harming turtles and their habitat. Chemical pollution, such as oil spills, can harm the turtles and contaminate their environment. Litter such as plastic bags pose a threat to baby turtles who mistake them for food like jellyfish. Turtles can’t digest plastic and this can harm them and even kill them.

Seahorses are suffering - They may look like tiny horses, but seahorses are actually fish! Two seahorse species are found around the British coastline – the Spiny Seahorse and the Short Snouted Seahorse – and there are more than 40 species worldwide. They’re the only species on earth in which the male falls pregnant and carries the babies. Seahorses live in shallow weedy areas, especially eel grass beds. In winter they move into deeper waters to escape the rough weather. Sadly, seahorses are another marine species that faces threats of extinction.

What are the threats?

Over 150 million seahorses are taken from the wild for the traditional Chinese medicine trade

• Around one million are taken from the wild to be sold as souvenirs. Along with shells and starfish they are taken from the sea and left to die in the sun

• The pet trade takes around one million seahorses from the wild for aquaria. Most will not survive and will die in captivity

• Current fishing practices such as beam trawling are detrimental to seahorses, who can easily get caught in their nets’ (Source)

Tiffi gives Elsa a call to let her know that she’s found most of the articles for part 3. She gets Elsa’s voicemail, so she lives a message for her. One final article that will be very helpful is to find out what the future has in store for conservation. 

Let’s continue - What will 2021 bring in the world of conservation?

Back to the beginning - Tiffi learns about the Ocean Ecosystem