These People Proved We Can Make A Difference After Turtles Came Back To Beach They Cleaned For The First Time In 20 Years
Every day we see many sad things being reported on the news and on the internet – but now it’s time to hear something positive. For the first time in 20 years, turtles have come to nest to the Versova beach in Mumbai, India thanks to the joint effort between lawyer and environmentalist Afroz Shah and a team of dedicated volunteers .
Due to pollution of beaches and fishing , the population of turtles has been dropping for many years. And it’s only thanks to modern technology, like nets, that are designed to allow the turtles to escape, and conservation efforts that the number of sea turtles is starting to increase. One recent study even found 299 turtle nesting sites around the world, proving that they are slowly recovering from near extinction.
The beach clean up effort organized by Afroz Shah has transformed a beach full of plastic into a place where the turtles can safely nest. The volunteers removed a whopping 5 million kilograms of plastic in 85 weeks and the UN are calling it “world’s largest beach cleanup project.” Afroz even guarded the first turtle hatchlings himself and made sure they found their way into the sea: “I had tears in my eyes when I saw them walking towards the ocean,” he said in an interview with The Guardian.
Sadly, there are still ways to go in order to stop the problem of turtles going extinct – just this week 300 turtles got stuck in fishing nets and drowned off the coast of Mexico. This just proves that we must do everything in our power to prevent the extinction of these majestic creatures.
Check out the world’s largest beach clean up in the gallery below!
h/t
For over 100 million years, the sea turtles have roamed the oceans, but since humans started encroaching on their habitats, they had it seriously tough
People are often catching them as ‘easy catch’
And many end up tangled up in fishing nets
Pollution, climate change, and development along beaches have destroyed many of their habitats
Just recently 300 turtles drowned in stray fishing nets off the coast of Mexico
A recent found 299 turtle nesting sites around the world, showing that things are slowly starting to change for the positive
Thanks to citizen initiatives like the one in Mumbai, India, beaches are finally becoming suitable for nesting again
The Versova beach clean up effort was lead by Lawyer and environmentalist Afroz Shah
The volunteers removed an whopping 5 million kilograms of plastic in 85 weeks and UN are calling it the “world’s largest beach cleanup project”
From a dirty dumping ground, full of plastic and trash
The beach has been completely transformed
Into a majestic coast where turtles can safely nest
“I had tears in my eyes when I saw them walking towards the ocean” said Mr. Shah
Six of the seven species of sea turtle are still considered to be critically endangered so we must do everything in our power to prevent the extinction of these majestic creatures
Aušrys Uptas
One day, this guy just kind of figured - “I spend most of my time on the internet anyway, why not turn it into a profession?” - and he did! Now he not only gets to browse the latest cat videos and fresh memes every day but also shares them with people all over the world, making sure they stay up to date with everything that’s trending on the web. Some things that always pique his interest are old technologies, literature and all sorts of odd vintage goodness. So if you find something that’s too bizarre not to share, make sure to hit him up!
20-Year-Old Engineer’s Idea To Make Ocean Clean Itself Will Be Launched Next Year
Boyan Slat is a 20 year old with an idea on how to clean plastic trash from our oceans. The Ocean Cleanup initiative wants to reduce the amount of trash in the oceans by employing floating barriers that are moored to the seabed. They would collect lighter-than-water plastic trash with the help of the ocean currents and without harming sea life.
The pilot, which will be deployed near Tsushima Island (located between Japan and Korea) in the first quarter of 2016, will test the durability and viability of the project. It will be only 2000 meters long, a far cry from the planned 100 kilometers length, but it will still be the longest floating structure on Earth.
Cleaning up plastic garbage in ocean, like the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is impractical with ships. However, the 100km stationary cleanup array could remove 42% of the Garbage Patch over 10 years, 70,320,000kg in total.
More info: theoceancleanup.com | Facebook | Twitter (h/t: boredpanda )
When it’s deployed in 2016, the 2,000m floating line will become the longest floating structure in the world.
This concept will test out 20-year-old Boyan Slat’s plan to rid the oceans of floating plastic waste.
This plan would use ocean currents to skim the plastic trash without harming the sea life.
The eventual Ocean Cleanup Array would be a 100km long and able to collect 70,320,000kg of plastic waste over 10 years
Estimated clean up cost would be roughly 4.53 euros (5.04 USD) per kilogram – 3% of the cost of other potential clean-up methods
Martynas Klimas
Writes like a mad dervish, rolls to dodge responsibility, might have bitten the Moon once.
