Research paper

“Fresh water, and marine reptiles that have a toothless horny beak and a shell of bony dermal plates
usually covered with horny shields enclosing the trunk and into which the head, limbs, and tail usually
may be withdrawn”(turtle N.D.) “When baby turtles are born they are on their own; their mothers aren’t
around to care for them or teach them how to avoid threats.” (Australia, H.C.)

They don’t begin breeding until they are about 30 to 40 years old (depending on the species). This
means they have to survive a long time before they start breeding and produce more offspring of their
own to keep the life cycle going. They make long migrations. Spending so much time travelling in the
water means that they are exposed to more impacts, as turtles may travel from safe waters to waters
that are full of dangers such as fishing nets, boats or marine debris. They have poor hearing and sight
when above the surface of the water. This means boats often hit them.”(Australia, H.C.). Since turtles
take such a long time to repopulate and there is so much pollution in our waters you can only imagine
how hard it is for them to reproduce, between not being able to because of their age or dying off to
young and never having the chance. Reproduction rates of all turtles has drastically gone down to the
point where “all species of turtles are considered endangered” due to being “Slaughtered for their eggs,
meat, skin and shells, sea turtles suffer from poaching and over-exploitation. They also face habitat
destruction, climate change, and most of all accidental capture in fishing gear, eating our garbage, and
already polluted fish and kelp.”(Australia, H.C.)

Other than them ingesting our pollutants they also have to face “Fertilisers, oil, petrol and chemicals
used on land can pollute the ocean. These pollutants travel along waterways – such as drains, creeks
and rivers – until they end up in the ocean. Pollution of the ocean also occurs through deliberate or
accidental dumping at sea. This includes major oil and chemical spills. Water pollution affects the foods
that turtles eat. By eating polluted food the pollution gets into the turtles and makes them sick too. “(Ex.
they do not have to directly ingest a tar ball, for example, to be affected by it. Small marine animals, on
the lower levels in the food chain, like plankton, absorb these chemicals as they feed. The chemicals
then accumulate in these animals’ bodies, which makes the toxins much more concentrated than in the
surrounding water. These small animals are then consumed by larger animals, like sea turtles, which
continues to increase concentration levels of chemicals and pollutants.)”(Conservancy N.D.) Water
pollution can also cause skin growths, eye infections or other diseases. Recent studies have found that
turtles can ingest thousands of man-made chemicals, including many we can’t even identify and it may
be making the turtles unwell and causing more types of skin growths.”(Australia, H. C.)

“For nearly four decades, scientists have suspected that persistent organic pollutants (POPs) contributed
to a green turtle's susceptibility to the virus that causes fibropapilomatosis (FP), a disease that forms
large benign tumors that can inhibit the animal's sight, mobility and feeding ability. In a new study,*
researchers from the Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML), a government-university partner facility in
Charleston, S.C., and from university and federal collaborators in Hawaii demonstrated POPs are not, in
fact, a co-factor linked to the increasing number of green sea turtles afflicted with FP.
POPs are a large group of human-made chemicals that, as their name indicates, persist in the
environment. They also spread great distances through air and water, accumulate in human and animal
tissues, increase in concentration up food chains, and may have carcinogenic and neurodevelopmental
effects. POPs include banned substances such as DDT and toxaphenes, once used as pesticides;
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), once used as insulating fluids; and polybrominated diphenyl ethers
(PDBEs), still used as flame retardants. Two previous studies attempting to link POPs and FP were unable
to rule out the impact of the pollutants on the disease.”(Brenda. A. Jensen)

Even though many turtles are now affected by this disease there are solutions to it. “The Solution:
Education is important to solving marine pollution. The public can get involved in this issue by: Following
local codes enforcing fertilizer bans near waterways; Using less chemical fertilizers, opting for natural
compost instead; Buying organically produced food and products; Reducing oil consumption by
carpooling, using public transportation or buy energy-efficient vehicles; Speaking out against off shore
drilling; Get informed about local waste disposal to ensure that untreated waste water isn’t introduced
to natural waterways and oceans.” (Conservancy N.D.)

In conclusion our pollution is killing our sea life and creating deadly diseases we never should have had
and they never should have suffered from. However there are solutions to these problems as long as we
care enough to try.