Preserve the protected status of the Green Sea Turtles in Hawaii

The Sea turtles In Hawaii are a part of the identity of the Islands and their people. They are on the protected list because of the potential for the unrestrained slaughter that once brought them to the brink of extinction.

 Sea turtles have been in the Planet’s oceans for around 110  million years.

 The proliferation of these creatures helps maintain and control the health of reefs and sea life in coastal waters around the globe.
The turtle is also a spiritual symbol in the cultures of a great many indigenous people living in coastal environments around the globe, often representing longevity, wisdom and creation, in the baseline consciousness of these cultures.
    The Sea Turtles have always been in the ecological and historical record,
as inseparable  parts of the oceans ecosystem. Turtles are also a tell tale sign of the general health of the marine ecosystem, and their presence is mandatory for the overall well being of the sea life wherever they are found.
Sea turtles are gentle creatures spending most of their lives in the ocean. Females become reproductively capable between 10 to 60 years of age, and only then to return, to the place of their birth to lay eggs for another generation. Although a female can lay thousands of eggs in her lifetime, only a very few of the hatchlings will survive to maturity.
    Before the interference of modern human hunters, there were multiple millions of sea turtles swimming the seas of this planet and the north shore of Oahu was home to over 4 times the number of turtles that can be found there today.

 Today… all seven species of sea turtle are either endangered or threatened.

  The global Sea turtle population has been diminishing at a frightening pace since the last half of the 20th century. This has been very clearly caused by human activity.
The only way to stem the on going tide of their destruction is to take action now!  

Some of the common dangers to Sea Turtles are:  

 

·        Poisoning of coastal waters, Poisoning of sea grass (a staple food source for the turtle) and bleaching of coral reefs all caused by Agricultural Chemical and pesticide runoff.

 

·        General human pollution and garbage.

·        Destruction and crushing of coral reefs by human traffic.

·        Encroachment of human activities in turtle nesting grounds.

·        Illegal poaching and slaughter of Turtles for meat shells and eggs.

·        Entanglement and death in commercial fishing line,  driftnets. Shrimp trawling nets

·        Ingestion of garbage and plastic bags mistaken for Jellyfish, a natural food source.

·        A disease called fibropapilloma, whose cause is known to be Agricultural Chem run off and whose treatment is still unknown and has reached epidemic proportions in Hawaii.

·        And finally ignorance and bad science, being used by profiteers, to exploit yet another species to it’s ultimate extinction.

There is currently a special interest political lobby, to remove the Turtles from the protection of the Endangered Species Act calling for their termination in as yet undisclosed numbers. It would effectively become open season on these gentle, beautiful and ecologicly necessary, spiritual anchors of of the Hawaiian Islands and open season on the ecological balance of life in the Hawaiian coastal waters.

 Please help stop this senseless and outrageous lobby from coming to fruition.

Help us to Preserve the Protected Status of The Green Sea Turtle. This INCLUDES the Hawaiian population of these beautiful creatures.