All photos in this article were taken by me. All Rights Reserved.
The beach off of NC 12, near Black Pelican Beach, just north of Avon, NC.
This year, we visited the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I’d only ever been there once, in 2003, just before Hurricane Isabel altered parts of the barrier islands. We enjoyed the landscapes, the nature reserves, the wildlife, the quaint towns, and of course, the beaches.
Natural Beauty
The Outer Banks are a string of barrier islands that span and protect nearly the entire coast of North Carolina. As an Outer Banks Guide explained, “They are made entirely of sand, without the keel of rock that anchors most islands firmly to the earth. It is a fascinatÂingly evanescent phenomenon in geological terms, a landform so transient that changes are visible from year to year.”1 Though there is a lot of development, there are vast natural areas, preserves, dunes, and beaches. We saw inspiring sun rises on the ocean side and gorgeous sunsets on the sound side.
Sunset over the sound, taken from the Duck Town Park Boardwalk, Duck, NC.
Wildlife
There were more birds and crabs than I can list, as well as deer and other animals. Pelicans seemed to enjoy showing off their graceful glide just inches above the sea. Sandpipers and terns poked into the sand seeking food. A few times, I sat really still on the beach when there weren’t a lot of people around, and I became surrounded by ghost crabs! The Outer Banks have laws and protected areas for wildlife throughout the islands. They restricted humans from some places to protect bird nests:
Do Not Enter signs from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service on the Outer Banks, NC.
We even saw sea turtle tracks!
Sea turtle tracks at Oregon Inlet, NC.
But sadly, we also found a dead sea turtle. We visited an area called Oregon Inlet and had a picnic snack on the beach. Then we walked along the beach and picked up trash.
The beach along Oregon Inlet, NC.
In the distance, I could see something big with orange stripes and wasn’t sure what it was until we got right up to it. Once I realized that it was a deceased sea turtle, I cried. I don’t know what caused its death, but I was sorry that it had lost its life. When I went to report the turtle, I discovered that spray paint markings like these indicate that this turtle had already been reported. Scientists document the animal’s species, sex, and age, and also extract genetic material to study and to better understand those species.
Deceased sea turtle with orange spray paint markings.
The National Park Service has many sites in the Outer Banks, including several lighthouses and the Wright Brothers National Memorial, and they had one on Ocracoke Island that offered sea turtle education. My son learned a lot from the rangers and their exhibit.
My son listened to the National Park Service rangers and learned about sea turtle nesting on the Outer Banks. National Park Service site on Ocracoke Island.Sea turtle nesting exhibit at the National Park Service site on Ocracoke Island.
Trash
As usual for my family, we picked up litter and beachcombed. Following are three of the piles we accumulated, containing a range of items – bottles of sunscreen, pieces of toys, Styrofoam/polystyrene, pieces of nylon rope, fireworks debris, food wrappers, plastic bags and film, and many, many small pieces of plastic. I uploaded images of each individual item into the Litterati app.
As you can see, we found quite a variety of items, some recognizable and some not! Some of these items likely washed up on the beach from other places or fell off of boats, but others were obviously left behind. It’s so important to remember to leave the beach cleaner than you found it! Plastic pollution exponentially increases annually and is harming everything in the food chain, including humans.
Below are a few of my favorite finds – a broken green-haired plastic mermaid, a fishermen’s glove, and two missile-shaped diving weights that we ended up using and keeping!
I also found these goggles, which at first I thought someone had dropped. But upon closer examination, I noticed that these had been in the ocean long enough to grow barnacles:
Jennette’s Pier
Located in Nags Head, NC, and used for sightseeing and fishing, this pier is unique. It was originally built in 1939 by the Jennette family, hence the name. The North Carolina Aquarium Society bought it in 2003 with the intention of building an educational outpost for the Aquarium, but Hurricane Isabel severely damaged the pier later that same year. The Aquarium rebuilt the 1000-foot-long, concrete pier with educational panels throughout and it reopened in 2011.2 It is LEED certified and has 3 wind turbines:
Wind turbine at Jennette’s Pier.
They had exhibit panels on birds and marine mammals and shorebirds, such as this one:
“Sea Turtle Rescue” sign at Jennette’s Pier.
They had others on many topics, including surfing, ocean processes, fishing, and trash. In fact, they had sponsored recycling stations for items like cigarette butts and fishing line:
Recycling station for fishing line.Recycling station for cigarette butts, to be recycled by TerraCycle.
The Pier House features a small, free series of North Carolina Aquariums interactive exhibits. I highly recommend visiting this pier if you’re ever on the Outer Banks!
My son standing in front of one of the North Carolina Aquarium exhibit tanks.
Other Cool Finds
Outer Banks Brewing Station
We ate at this brewery and restaurant, which was once featured on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. While we went to several good restaurants, I’m featuring this one because it uses wind energy! It was the first wind-powered brewery in the United States, and the first business to produce wind power on the Outer Banks. They use 100% of the turbine’s energy to supplement their electricity. Over the course of its operating life (at least 30 years), this 10 kW Bergey GridTek system will offset approximately 1.2 tons of air pollutants and 250 tons of greenhouse gases.3 Oh, and we enjoyed the food and brew!
My husband at the Outer Banks Brewing Station, preparing for his flight (of beer)!Wind turbine at the Outer Banks Brewing Station.
The Surfin’ Spoon
This frozen yogurt shop in Nags Head was my son’s absolute favorite, and they also offered dairy-free ice cream treats that were delicious! This shop, owned by a former professional surfer, collects and donates money to Surfers for Autism, a non-profit that provides free surf sessions to children and adults with autism and other related developmental delays and disabilities.4
My son peeking through the Surfin’ Spoon’s sign.
Dog friendly
Almost everywhere on the Outer Banks is super dog friendly! I found this pleasantly surprising and hope to bring our dog there someday.
Overall, A Lovely Place to Travel
We saved up for this trip and felt privileged to be able to travel the Outer Banks, taking in many sights from Corolla all the way down to Emerald Isle, North Carolina. We saw several lighthouses, National Park Service sites, and other places that I didn’t have time to mention above. I highly recommend the Outer Banks for its beauty, dedication to conservation, and relaxed atmosphere. Thanks for reading, please share and subscribe!
My son playing on the beach in the early evening in Duck, NC.
Fireworks on a beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Photo by A n v e s h on Unsplash
I love fireworks. My son loves fireworks. So much so that we drag my (grumbling) husband to watch them every July 4th. However, I do like to leave the annual tradition of blowing up sparkly gunpowder to the professionals. I have never taken much to buying and setting off my own fireworks, especially with a young child around. Since I don’t purchase consumer fireworks, I honestly have never given much thought to the waste they create. But then my best friend, who lives on the coast of North Carolina, sent me this photo the day after July 4th last year:
Fireworks debris collected on a North Carolina beach, July 5, 2020. Photo by Taylor Notion
She collected that much plastic and cardboard firework waste on a walk where she lives, all left behind by people the night before. That’s the amount she found that hadn’t already washed into the ocean during high tide. That’s from just one section of one beach, in one town. I imagine fireworks at the beach are fun and beautiful, but at what cost to the environment?
Waste
After reading multiple news articles from coastal states, particularly Florida, I discovered that the Independence Day firework waste collected is measured in tons. Tons! Even on beaches where fireworks are illegal, such as on Hilton Head Island, beach patrol collected seven trailers’ worth of fireworks debris in 2019.5
“Any regular beach walker will tell you about encountering little ribbons of plastic along the tide line in the days and weeks after the Fourth of July. All waiting for the high tide that will be their ride to join that vast swirl of ocean-borne plastics.” -Mark Lane, The Daytona Beach News-Journal6
Since these are set off in the dark, it’s difficult to find all of the scattered pieces once exploded. “Fireworks launchers are big and easy to spot and haul away, but each rocket launched and bomb exploded rains tiny shards of plastics and cardboard along with a smattering of metals like lead and copper.”7 This does not include the bottles, cans, cigarette butts, snack bags/containers, and other single-use disposable items that July 4th partiers leave behind.
Plastics
The plastic bits break down into smaller pieces called microplastics, which are then ingested by fish and marine animals. The toxins from those plastics make their way through the food chain, all the way into our bodies.
This 25 shot Saturn Missile costs under $2.00 but will leave microplastics for hundreds of years.
Here is just one example. The Saturn Missile Battery (SMB), which I’ve seen debris from in a lot of Fifth of July clean-up images, is a common type of aerial firework. It consists of a cardboard base packed with between 25 to 1,000 shots. These shots are small plastic tubes filled with explosive powder. “When an SMB is detonated, each of those tubes shoots into the air with a shrill whistle, shatters apart and falls back to earth, creating a shower of litter that’s hard for even the best-intentioned reveler to clean up. Unlike colorful caps and wings, the dull gray or green SMB litter blends into sand and soil.”8 These bits of plastics and microplastics will last for hundreds of years.
Fifth of July Clean-ups
For all celebrations at the beach, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recommends cleaning up after ourselves, participating in coastal clean-ups, and educating others. “By celebrating the Fourth of July and enjoying fireworks responsibly, we can honor our country through protecting our beloved coastal environments, and the marine animals who rely on these habitats.”9 There are “Fifth of July” clean-ups nationwide, volunteers who clean-up after the partiers the night before. It’s always a good thing to participate in a trash clean-up. But what if we could end this tradition altogether and avoid a 4th of July pollution hangover?
Photo by Alexander Kagan on Unsplash
Wildlife Disturbance
Left on the beaches, fireworks debris harms marine life. They block the paths of sea turtles and crabs. Not to mention birds and marine animals ingest these small pieces of debris. Additionally, there are dangers to all wildlife from injury and entanglement from the plastic garbage. Unfortunately, July 4th is during prime sea turtle nesting season.
The noise from fireworks disturbs animals everywhere, from eagles and other birds to our domesticated love ones. The loud explosions cause panic and despair in many animals.10 Just think of how your dog or your neighbor’s dog reacts every 4th of July.
“Environmentalists from Clearwater Marine Aquarium and Audubon Bird Stewards reported that the noise, debris, and lights from fireworks were negatively impacting both sea turtles and beach nesting birds. Fireworks cause aborted nesting attempts, ingestion of plastic residue, and disturbed and disoriented hatchlings, all of which significantly reduces the number of successful births.”11
Any litter you leave on the beach can potentially harm another species. Image by Noutch from Pixabay
Other Problems from Fireworks
Consumer fireworks cause thousands of injuries annually in the United States. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in 2019 there were approximately 10,000 injuries from fireworks treated in emergency departments, with about 73% of those during just a one-month interval surrounding July 4th.12
In addition, fireworks, both consumer and professional types, are potentially toxic to the air and water, hence to us, wildlife, and the water we drink.13&14&15
Fireworks from gender reveal parties have caused massive wildfires.16&17
Did you know that Americans spend close to $1 billion annually on consumer fireworks? This number astonished me for many reasons. Do you know how many problems we could solve for ourselves, wildlife, and the planet with $1 billion? Make a list, pick one, and I bet it’s money better spent than just blowing it up.
Photo by Karen Montgomery on Flickr, Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Environmentally Friendly Fireworks
There have been some developments with making more environmentally friendly fireworks, but these changes have not been significant enough to make large-scale differences. These include fireworks released with compressed air as an alternate propellant and changing the chemical make-up to reduce pollutants, but the studies on the latter are still new and the impact is not clear. In consumer fireworks, some companies are trying to switch to recycled paper and cardboard components over plastics, but testing new products takes time and money.
Photo by Murray Adamson on Flickr, Creative Commons license (CC BY-ND 2.0)
New Traditions
July 4th is no celebration for the environment and wildlife. We can do better. Especially with something that is so non-essential to our lives.
I argue that we don’t need to set off consumer fireworks or sparklers on the beach or anywhere else in nature, at all. In fact, I began this article as a person who loved to drag her family to professional fireworks every summer, but after researching the problems even they create, I’m starting to think differently. Are there new traditions we can create? What about laser light shows?
If you do set off fireworks on the beach or in a natural area, please take safety precautions and clean up the debris. It really matters! We can all make a difference and encourage others to do the right thing. Thank you for reading, please share and subscribe.
Additional Resources:
Article, “Let Freedom Ring and Fireworks Fly, but Keep Debris off the Beaches and Out of the Sky!” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program, July 1, 2019.
Article, “Fireworks: Can they ever be eco-friendly?” Deutsche Welle, accessed June 19, 2021.
Article, “Are Fireworks Bad for the Environment?” by Russell McLendon, Treehugger.com, updated February 23, 2021.
In my recent article about my trip to Hilton Head Island and its environmental consciousness, I mentioned that the beaches are really clean and well-maintained. Even with their efforts, I still picked up about 300 pieces of trash during my week there. Of course, I logged these into my Litterati app.
I thought I could put the images of my trash to good use, to show people how they can prevent beach and ocean pollution!
I bet you already know a lot about this. But if you share this article, it might enlighten others who will then use preventative measures. And then the world could be a less polluted place!
“Worldwide, 73 percent of beach litter is plastic.” -National Geographic7
Common Types of Beach Trash
I noticed that the same types of trash commonly appear on beaches all over the country. So I’ve divided this article into sections based on the common types of trash I’ve found.
Plastic water bottle almost in the surf. Photo by Marie Cullis.
Plastic drink bottles and caps
These are the most common items I pick up EVERYWHERE, and not just on beaches. Our love affair with drinks in single-use disposable plastic bottles and cups (I’m including styrofoam in this classification because styrofoam is chemically a plastic) is completely out of control. I even picked a red Solo cup that I used to collect cigarette butts and microplastics! I picked up many single-use disposable drink items like these:
Photos by Marie Cullis.
What can you do?
Buy a reusable drink container (or two) and use that for all your liquid refreshments. I have two: a Kleen Kanteen for water; and a Hydroflask coffee cup. They handle pretty much everything.
If you must buy a beverage, please dispose of it properly.
Food and snack wrappers
I find this type of litter on the beach (and everywhere else) very often. This includes food wrappers, containers, zipper bags, etc. Below is an image of a washed-up cannonball jellyfish next to the plastic lid of a cylindric chip container.
Plastic lid next to a washed-up jellyfish. Photo by Marie Cullis.
Here are some additional examples of food and snack wrappers:
Snack bag found on the beach in South Carolina. Photos by Marie Cullis.
What can you do?
Follow the saying, “Leave it cleaner than you found it.” Or “carry in, carry out.” Don’t lose track of your trash and disposables. Put them inside your beach bag until you can find a proper trash can. You can also consume less prepackaged food, which will be better for your health as well.
Beach Toys
This is one item that is particular to beaches but so easily preventable. Children scatter and lose their things easily, and almost all beach toys are made of plastic. When people leave these items on the beach, they go straight into the ocean during high tide.
Photo by Marie Cullis.Photo by Marie Cullis.
You can see how easily small toys are overlooked in the next image. Can you guess what that is?
Photo by Marie Cullis.
If you guessed a toy car, you’ve got a good eye!
Here are some other examples of left behind or broken toys:
There were so many abandoned toys on the beach. We weren’t trying to steal toys, I promise! We picked these up as the sun was setting to prevent them from being washed into the ocean at high tide. We donated all but one item to the thrift store. Photos by Marie Cullis.
We found this and my son named it “Mr. Boat.” We kept this one and donated the rest. Photo by Marie Cullis.
In particular, we found multiple plastic bucket straps, as they are not usually permanently affixed. These are easily forgotten about but this cheap plastic will make it into the ocean by the next morning.
Photos by Marie Cullis.
There are a few brands, such as Green Toys, that feature a rope strap that is not easily removed. The bucket is even made of recycled plastic. It’s the one we own and play with year-round.
What about the packaging for all of those beach toys?
A plastic net bag that the plastic beach toys were sold in, from American Plastic Toys Inc. Photo by Marie Cullis.
Below are images of a discarded boogie board left at a wash station near the beach. I’d seen these little styrofoam balls lining parts of the beach and I couldn’t figure out what they were from. I did not manage to get a good photo of them. Once I found this broken board and looked at it closely, I could see that these cheap boards were simply nylon or polyester fabric (fabrics made from plastics) over styrofoam. You could not make a worse product for the beach – a product meant to be used in the water that is made of cheap materials and not meant to last more than one vacation – WOW.
Please don’t buy these. This one made it into a proper trash can, but how many end up in the ocean?
Photos by Marie Cullis.
What about the dog’s toys? These can be easily lost. And yes, they are made of plastics and other synthetics.
Photo by Marie Cullis.
What can you do?
The best thing you can do is to not leave beach toys behind. The best way to keep track of your children’s toys is simply to own less of them. Perhaps just one bucket and one shovel, for example. In general, kids don’t need many toys when playing outdoors to stay entertained and engaged. Besides the sand and water, the beach offers so many shells, sticks, seaweed, and other washed-up items that kids are curious about and love to experiment with.
Place broken toys in your beach bag immediately so that you don’t accidentally leave them behind.
As for dog toys, how about throwing a stick for Fido instead of a ball or plastic Frisbee?
Items related to smoking
This is another common item I find everywhere and not just at the beach. Corporations make cigarette butts out of synthetic materials that do not biodegrade. Plastic lighters are found in the stomachs of birds and marine animals. Honestly, I used to smoke a long time ago and I sometimes threw cigarette butts on the ground. I had no idea how bad they were for the environment. I pick them up regularly now as part of my Litterati mission, as I feel like I owe the environment for this terrible habit I used to have.
Photo by Marie Cullis.
I gathered dozens of cigarette butts and several lighters on the beach, here are a few examples:
Photos by Marie Cullis.
I also picked up plastic tips from Swisher Sweets, a brand of inexpensive flavored tip cigarillos.
What can you do?
Don’t smoke! But if you do, can you please discard your waste properly?
Straws
Aren’t straws like so last year?
No, not really. Not yet. Despite straw bans in different parts of the world.
Everywhere we went in Hilton Head served straws, sometimes automatically in the drink. I’m not criticizing the Island for this, because it happens in my town too. But I hope all eateries eventually end this practice. The exception was the Watusi Cafe on Pope Avenue, which served paper straws – thank you!!!
Straws are everywhere! Photos by Marie Cullis.
What can you do?
Ask the server to not give you a straw before he or she brings your drink. I used to decline the straws when the server would set them down on the table, but since so many places automatically put them in the drink, I try to cut them off at the pass. Once that straw is opened and in a drink, it doesn’t matter whether or not I use it. The restaurant will now trash it.
I don’t use a straw very often anymore, but if I need one, I have my Final Straw.
Plastic Bags
I still found a couple of plastic bags on the beach despite the town’s ban on plastic bags!
Photo by Marie Cullis.
What can you do?
Decline plastic bags no matter where you live! Bring your own cloth bag.
If you don’t have a bag, can you carry your items without one? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stopped at a store and purchased one item that the cashier bagged. I don’t need a bag for one item! Give them the bag back right away and say thanks but no thanks!
Many stores do have a paper bag option if you ask for one. If not, they likely have an empty box readily available that you can put your purchases in.
Beach tent/umbrella parts
Many people bring their own beach tents and umbrellas to the beach. But sometimes they leave waste from them. Below you can see where I found a plastic tent stake accidentally left behind and a zip tie of which I found several. The last image is of a full plastic water bottle that someone tied to a nylon string. I found this buried in the sand but the string was sticking out. Once I pulled it out, it was obvious that someone most likely used it as a weight to hold something down. Clever – but forgotten, an immediate pollutant – this would’ve been in the ocean after high tide.
Photos by Marie Cullis.
What can you do?
Collect all of the parts to your tents and umbrellas, even if it’s trash. Double-check before you leave that you haven’t forgotten anything.
Everyday Non-Beach items
I find many items on the beach that are not necessarily beach items but items that people use daily. These items include wet wipes or baby wipes (most often not made of anything biodegradable even if the packaging makes that claim); dryer sheets; plastic dental picks; cellophane; condom wrappers; and even a bullet casing (pictured below).
Wet wipe or baby wipe. Photo by Marie Cullis.Wet wipe or baby wipe. Photo by Marie Cullis.Dryer sheet. Photo by Marie Cullis.Bullet Casing. Photo by Marie Cullis.
The most surprising things I’ve ever found on a beach were plastic tampon applicators in the Gulf of Mexico. At first, I thought, there’s no way someone changed their tampon on the beach! But I found not just one, but multiple of these and I’ve also since found them along the Tennessee River. It dawned on me that these items were not left behind by careless beach-goers, but more likely washed up from trash and from sewage disposal that made it into the ocean. It turns out that litter collectors colloquially call these “beach whistles.”
“Beach whistle,” or tampon applicator. Photo by Marie Cullis.
What can you do?
In general, the best thing you can do is cut down on disposable items, especially single-use disposable plastic items. Even if you’re not leaving these items on the beach, they’re making it onto the beaches and the items are only a portion of what’s washed up from the ocean. Meaning, there’s way more in the ocean.
The answer is to not use disposable items. It isn’t always easy, so just work on solving one problem at a time – that’s what I’m doing and sharing with you on this website!
Photo by Marie Cullis.
Thanks for reading, please subscribe in the box above. Love your beaches and ocean. And keep being the change!
Photo of a discarded plastic laundry detergent bottle on the ground, by nicholasrobb1989 on Pixabay.
Have you ever been out walking, hiking, biking, or even kayaking and noticed that there was trash here and there, everywhere? Noticed trash lining the streets as you drove to work or school? Or the debris that just seems to have washed up while walking on the beach or riverbank?
What do you do? Do you pick it up?
If so, there’s an app for that. It’s called Litterati.
Litterati app.
This app tracks litter that people all over the world pick up, and it compiles the data by location in order to pinpoint the source of the litter. With this app you take a photo of each piece of litter with your smartphone, then pick it up and discard it. You can get really artistic with your photos, too. Litterati features the most interesting and creative photos on Instagram.
The Data
Photos are automatically geotagged, meaning information about the exact location and time of pick-up is recorded. Additionally, users hashtag each image with information such as the brand, object name, and type of material.
Photo of a discarded Coca-Cola can on the ground, by Stanislav Kondratiev on Unsplash.
That data is loaded into an ArcGIS map to help track and create data to help diagnose the root cause of litter in any given area.18 As Litterati’s website explains:
“Litterati then compiles that cleanup data into a robust database of litter maps around the world. Using your tagged cleanup photos, the Litterati team can ask questions such as, ‘How does the weather affect the types of litter thrown?’ and ‘Are there more cigarette butts littered near bus stops?’.”19Â
Jeff Kirschner, the founder of Litterati, explained in a TED Talk why he created the app:
Join Us!
I joined this effort in March 2017, and I love it! I’ve used it in my neighborhood, while hiking, on my son’s school grounds, at the dog park, and at the beach. We pick up trash whenever we feel we can safely collect it and discard it. It is really satisfying to know we are making a difference and teaching my son by example.
Consistent Growth
You can join or create clubs and daily they list the top 5 people with the most activity. I made that list twice and it made my day!
In May 2018, the United Nations announced that they are partnering with Litterati to fight world pollution.20Â
While Litterati is using its data and mapping for great changes, Jeff Kirschner is still looking to inspire people. “How do we deliver a wonderful experience for each community member so that they’re inspired to pick up just one more piece, and then one more?”21And then spread the word, build community, and inspire others. Wouldn’t it be cool if picking up trash and keeping our Earth clean became the new normal?
Thank you for reading, and let’s be the change!
A few of my own Litterati photos:
Snickers bar wrapper that reads “Satisfies.” It sure didn’t satisfy here where I pulled it out of the water. Photo by Marie Cullis.
Single use disposable plastic straw found buried in the sand, Hilton Head Island, October 2018. Photo by Marie Cullis.
This is the remnants of an old chainsaw my husband found and discarded. Photo by Marie Cullis.
This is a clear plastic soda bottle I found embedded in the sand, on an island off the coast of North Carolina. The only residents there are wild horses. Photo by Marie Cullis.
Speedy cafe plastic drink cup on the shore of the Tennessee River. Someone just left it. I picked this item up this past weekend. Photo by Marie Cullis.
Sea turtles are endangered, which is probably not news to you, but you may not know why they are endangered. They are keystone species, meaning they play a crucial role in the way an ecosystem functions. According to Oceana.org, sea turtles “play an important role in ocean ecosystems by maintaining healthy seagrass beds and coral reefs, providing key habitat for other marine life, helping to balance marine food webs and facilitating nutrient cycling from water to land.”22 I want to help people understand what we can do right NOW to help.
Sea turtles have been on the Earth for at least 110 million years, and maybe as long as 210 million years. Now human activities are to blame for their decline and endangerment. All seven sea turtle species are vulnerable, threatened, or endangered due to human behaviors and activities.23 Following are the biggest threats:
Entanglement and Bycatch
Coastal development
Artificial Light
Coastal Armoring
Plastics
Beach (and Ocean) Litter
Ocean pollution
Climate Change
Poaching and illegal trade of eggs, meat, and shells
Turtle Shell Trade
Let’s examine each of those further.
“A protected green turtle entangled in derelict fishing gear at Pearl and Hermes Atoll. Three green sea turtles were freed during the mission.” Photo by NOAA Photo Library on Flickr (NOAA News 2014 October 28), Creative Commons license (CC BY 2.0).
Entanglement and Bycatch
Entanglement is exactly what it sounds like, that is, entanglement in fishing nets and gear. Up to 40% of all animals caught in fisheries are discarded as waste. Bycatch refers to animals that were not the target catch – for example, dolphins getting caught in tuna nets. “Despite ‘Dolphin Safe Tuna’ labeling, approximately 1000 dolphins die as bycatch in the Eastern Tropical Pacific tuna fishery each year,” according to seeturtles.org. The World Wildlife Fund explains that “modern fishing gear, often undetectable by sight and extremely strong, is very efficient at catching the desired fish species—as well as anything else in its path.”24 Most often the animals die.
There are some protections for certain species, such as the dolphins mentioned above, but it is not a perfect system and the whole industry needs to find more solutions. “Each year hundreds of thousands of adult and immature sea turtles are accidentally captured in fisheries ranging from highly mechanized operations to small-scale fishermen around the world.”25
In the early 1980s, the federal government’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) developed a cagelike trapdoor device that allowed the escape of 97 percent of turtles and zero percent of shrimp. It seemed like a great solution, but it was cumbersome, and shrimpers hated the device and government regulations. NMFS made it voluntary, and only about 2% of shrimp boats participated. In December 1994, twenty-four years after the Kemp’s Ridley Turtle received the endangered status, the federal government finally mandated that all shrimp trawls from the Carolinas to Texas have turtle-escape devices (TEDs). “Not until August 2003 did the federal government require Leatherback-sized turtle-escape devices in shrimp nets along the U.S. East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. That this quarter-century delay was utterly needless would be proven later, when many shrimpers grew devoted to TEDs because of the work they save by keeping not only turtles but a lot of trash and other unwanted things out of the catch.”26
Sustainable, responsible companies that use TEDs are following best practices and have reduced sea turtle deaths.
What can you do? Try to only buy responsibly caught seafood. Inform and encourage your family and friends to purchase seafood only from responsible fisheries.
Photo by NOAA Photo Library on Flickr (NOAA/NMFS/Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center Blog), Creative Commons license (CC BY 2.0).
Coastal Development
Coastal development is exactly what it sounds like. “Half of the world’s population lives on or within 100 miles of a coastline and this number will likely increase dramatically in the next decade.”27 Human presence deters turtles from nesting where they would normally. Additionally, humans create pollution and waste – whether it’s litter or waste-water runoff, light pollution, or danger from vehicles driving on beaches.
What can you do? Whether you’re just vacationing at a beach or residing there, educate yourself about habitats in that area. First, follow the scout rule of “leave it cleaner than you found it.” That means leaving no trace! And pick up after other people too, because it’s the right thing to do.
Second, always limit light on beaches (this will allow you to see the stars, too!). Are there conservation efforts ongoing? Are there laws prohibiting certain practices to protect turtles? If so, make sure you follow the laws or best practices. You’ll be making a difference. If you’re going to live coastal, this is even more important – search the internet for where you live so that you can do the right thing, and be the change.
No laws or conservation efforts where you live? How about starting those efforts? You can partner with a local aquarium; lobby city or town council to get signs posted near the beach access points; even host a local seminar at the library and invite residents!
Turn Off The Lights
As mentioned above, artificial light from human presence is a big problem for turtle nests. Sea turtles depend on a dark and quiet beach for nesting. If there is too much light, turtles will choose a less optimal nest site, which reduces the chances of the baby sea turtles surviving. Also, hatchlings have an instinct that leads them in the brightest direction which is normally moonlight reflecting off of the ocean. Excess lighting from the nearby buildings and streets draws hatchlings toward land instead, where they will likely die from predators, humans, or even swimming pools.
What can you do? Eliminate light whether you’re a property or homeowner, tourist, or beach walker. Make your property low light and encourage others to do the same – especially during nesting season!
If you’re walking on the beach at night, don’t use flashlights and phone lights during nesting season. Download a red flashlight app if you must have some light. If you live in a beach-front residence, turn your lights off. I’ve listed an article about turtle-friendly lighting under Additional Resources.
Here is a video from the Sea Turtle Conservancy about how to eliminate artificial beach lighting:
Coastal Armoring
Beaches are beautiful and the place many people want to be, myself included, someday. Coastal areas are prime real estate and many beaches in the world have been heavily developed. Coastal armoring refers to sea walls and similar structures that protect real estate property, but they are harmful to sea turtles. The Sea Turtle Conservancy explains: “Sea walls directly threaten sea turtles by reducing or degrading suitable nesting habitat. They block turtles from reaching the upper portion of the beach, causing turtles to nest in less-than-optimal nesting areas lower on the beach where their nests are more susceptible to wave action and more likely to be covered with water.”28
What can you do?If you’re a developer or building a home for yourself, please always first check with local legislation. Many coastal places in the United States already have existing legislation sometimes called Coastal Zone Protection, Dune Protection, or Dune Management. You can search the internet for the area you are residing in or visiting for information. If your area of interest has no protections or current legislation, how about proposing it to the local council or government? Please don’t build anything without first doing careful research – there are a ton of organizations out there that can advise or point you in the right direction. Do your homework, and the turtles (as well as other wildlife, humans, and the environment) will reap the benefits. Be the change.
Plastics
Well, this topic is what my blog is all about: plastics and other human-made waste. Hundreds of thousands of marine animals and fish, as well as over 1 million seabirds, die each year from ocean pollution and ingestion or entanglement in marine debris. This includes turtles. Most plastic waste reaches the ocean via rivers, and up to 80% of this waste comes from landfill-bound trash. How does that happen!?!? I’ll get into that in another post.
Plastic bags are a huge factor when it comes to sea turtles. Why? Because turtles eat plastic bags. They mistake them for jellyfish. Many species of turtles do not have taste buds, in case you’re wondering why they can’t tell by taste. See the videos below. The first one shows you the difference between a jellyfish and a plastic bag floating in the water.
The next video shows you turtles eating a jellyfish, to give you visual context.
What can you do? My number one recommendation for the first thing you should change to make a difference: use reusable bags only, and don’t accept plastic bags from anywhere! Getting rid of plastic bags does and will keep making a big difference on so many fronts, so I can’t stress this enough!
After plastic bags, start eliminating all plastics from your life, especially single-use disposable plastics. Recycle, or better yet, don’t buy plastic as much as possible. “Over 1 million marine animals (including mammals, fish, sharks, turtles, and birds) are killed each year due to plastic debris in the ocean. More than 80% of this plastic comes from land. It washes out from our beaches and streets. Plastic travels through storm drains into streams and rivers. It flies away from landfills into our seas. As a result, thousands of sea turtles accidentally swallow these plastics, mistaking them for food.”29
Plastic bag from Walmart lying on the beach. I collected and disposed of it. At high tide that afternoon, it would’ve washed into the ocean and potentially harmed a sea turtle. Photo by Marie Cullis.
Stop using disposable plastic straws and decline them at restaurants. Besides plastic breaking down into smaller pieces and polluting beaches and the ocean, these get stuck in turtles’ nostrils and airways. You don’t need a straw to drink most beverages. If you really must have one, carry a metal or glass straw with you.
Don’t release helium balloons! They burst and fall to the Earth or the sea, and sea turtles mistakenly eat the balloons and die. Or stop using balloons altogether.
“100 Balloons Collected at a Clean-up at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge on the New Jersey coast.” Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Flickr, Creative Commons license (CC BY 2.0).
Beach (and Ocean) Litter
Besides trash flowing into the ocean, litter on beaches prevents hatchlings from reaching the sea.
What can you do? Keep beaches clean. Don’t leave behind litter or beach toys when visiting the beach. I try to leave the beach a little cleaner than I found it, picking up trash that is about to wash into the sea with the changing tides. Participate in beach clean-up events or clean up with your friends or family.
Use coral reef-friendly sunscreen. Many of your average sunscreens have chemicals in them that are not only harmful to the ocean, but also to the human body. Look at the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) Sunscreen Guide (see Additional Resources for the link).
Ocean Pollution
Although trash and plastics are one component, there are many, many other ways in which human activities pollute the ocean. Waste and by-products, like toxic metals, PCBs, petroleum products, agricultural and industrial runoff of contaminants such as fertilizers, chemicals, nutrients, and untreated waste; are all major problems for ocean and land dwellers. These are also causing major human health problems (many major diseases can be tied to these chemicals – again, another topic for another day). Oil companies are a big contributor to pollution, above and beyond oil spills.
What can you do? Buy less and consume less overall. Reduce how much meat you eat and how many animal products you use, because agriculture creates a lot of waste, methane, and chemicals. These chemicals make it into waterways and then the ocean, which poisons wildlife throughout the food chain. Buying from a farmer’s market locally or even growing your own food can reduce the amount of fertilizer and pesticide chemicals that make it into our water (because smaller farms don’t always use such harsh chemicals, and I doubt you do in your own garden). Reduce the chemicals you use in your yard and dispose of others properly through the hazardous waste collection in your area.
Climate Change
Climate change is real and happening, at an accelerated rate, which means many species will not be able to adapt quickly enough. This means the possible extinction of plants and animals and fish that are necessary to Earth’s balance.
What can you do?Reduce how much you drive. Perhaps try carpooling or using mass transportation. Ride a bike. Buy an electric car. Tell the oil companies to go to hell. Reduce the amount of energy you use. Avoid using fossil fuel energy whenever possible. Eat less meat and reduce your water use. Those are the first steps – start there!
Photo by Olga Tsai on Unsplash.
Poaching and Illegal Trade
In some countries, turtle meat and turtle eggs are a food source; in others, turtle eggs are collected by people for income in order to feed their families. Sometimes during nesting season, hunters will watch for nesting females. Once located, they will wait until the female turtle has finished laying her eggs, then kill her for the meat and take the eggs as well.
What can you do? If you travel, don’t buy food or products that use turtle, as that supports the practice. Organizations and governments are educating tourists and local inhabitants about the endangered turtles around the world. You can help by supporting the causes that protect and monitor sea turtle nests. You can help by spreading the information and helping to educate others about the problems. Participate in eco-tourism!
“While poaching, over-exploitation and bycatch are key threats to these ancient reptiles, they are also especially vulnerable to pollution and changes to their habitats, including nesting beaches, where even changes in sand temperature can threaten hatchlings.” -Stephen Larder30
Turtle Shell Trade
This relates to poaching and illegal trade but is specific in regards to products made from turtle shells, aka tortoiseshell; and is usually specific to the Hawksbill sea turtles. The Sea Turtle Conservancy indicates that “scientists estimate that hawksbill populations have declined by 90 percent during the past 100 years.”31 This has been outlawed by CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) which is an international agreement signed by 173 governments. However, the black market demand for turtle shells is still high.
What can you do? Don’t buy items that might be made from turtle shells or other turtle parts (including skin). Of course, those products likely won’t be labeled “turtle shell” or “hawksbill shell” but if you suspect, just say no and walk away. Unfortunately, the alternative is plastic, which I am trying to eliminate from my life. So be more minimalist and don’t buy either! You’ll remember your trip or vacation without a bunch of souvenirs anyway. Here’s a handy infographic put out by Travel For Wildlife to help you avoid turtle shell products:
They also made this very informative video, so please share it on social media with your friends and family!
You can join me in signing the pledge to avoid turtle shells with the See Turtles Organization32. They, too, have wonderful resources about how to identify real turtle shell vs. fake.33 Again, maybe just don’t buy either – it’s not worth the risk!
Adopt-A-Sea Turtle!
You can symbolically adopt a sea turtle or a sea turtle nest. There are many of these, you’ll find many just by searching online but look for a reliable organization. Most of the programs fund education about sea turtle nests, protect nests, and/or track sea turtles.
Photo by Isabella Jusková on Unsplash.
What other ideas do you have? Please feel free to leave a comment or question or idea! Thanks so much for reading. Please share and subscribe!
Turtle in Morehead City, North Carolina. Notice the plastic trash just a few feet away from him. Photo by Marie Cullis, April 2018.
If you’ve read my About Me page then you’ve seen part of this story already. Our family vacationed in the Southern Outer Banks to visit my best friend from college, and while we were exploring near Morehead City one afternoon, we saw this turtle walking next to discarded plastic. We took images of the turtle and the trash and shared them with Litterati (if you’re not familiar with Litterati, read my article on the organization). The turtle went back to the water, and we picked up the trash, of course. But what a moment in litter clean up and beach going that was!
I hope if you ever see something similar, you are inspired to clean up the trash and reduce plastic waste. Thanks for reading!
