Turtles, Turtles, Turtles

Greeting from Cairns, Australia. 

Sorry about the mix up on the previous post; Australia, Austria, Iceberg, Goldberg, etc. etc. 

Cairns, BTW, is pronounced Kens. If one dare says Cairns, one would be directed to the nearest funeral parlour.

This year's mission of mercy centres around rehabbing turtles. I figured that the skills that we developed last year working with drug addicted youth in Colombia were transferable. We went to our assignment yesterday but couldn't find a single crack pipe or syringe in the entire complex. It seems that the type of rehab needed in this instance is somewhat different. 






We are living in the Great Barrier Reef, one of the world's best known aquatic areas of biological diversity and beauty. 

Up until lately. Much of the coral has been bleached as a result of global warming. Numerous sea turtles have been victimized by irresponsible placement of fishing nets, motor boat propellers, oil spillages and, most damaging of all, ingestion of micro-plastic fibres. 

Fully 90% of all turtles have been harmed by irresponsible environmental activities. 

What I am divulging is not news. Any literate human, and probably many of the non-illiteratti are aware of the effects of global warming, indiscriminate dumping of garbage and a general disregard for the Earth. All well and good to be conscious of the issues but it is another thing entirely to see half a dozen holding tanks populated by sea turtles who are known as 'floaters'. 

As a result of swallowing plastic, their digestive systems are compromised. Their intestines and stomachs are unable to digest their contents so they develop air bubbles ending their ability to dive below the surface to feed. Imagine eating Passover seder dinners every night for a year, no matzoh abatement, no Ex-Lax. The bloat factor is similar.

Other of these creatures suffer from severed limbs as a result of being trapped in nets or have shells crushed or broken as a result of boating accidents.

Cracked Shell

Our typical mandate is to feed the beasts and encourage them to pass the plastic micro fibres through their system. It can take weeks, months or years. Since the average sea turtle lives over 80 years, without a health care plan, our intervention is required. Each morning we siphon turtle excrement out of their tanks, 

feed them fish and squid (not all of them eat properly; I prefer advising them that they are digesting calamari as opposed to squid; all about the marketing).

Believe it or not, turtles enjoy having their backs scratched! The material of the shell is similar to human fingernails. They will respond to a good scratch as would a dog or a husband. 










Afternoons are very different and will be dealt with in future instalments. We are having great fun post labour but I want this blog to focus on the problem, not on the distractions.