The slam of the car door reverberated in my ears as I headed towards the beach. Sea gulls cried out amidst the roar of the angry swells as the tang of salt water permeated my nose and mouth. The ocean collided with the beach in a cacophony of snarling sand and spray even this late at night. Searching through the colors of shadow and highlight, I found one of my taped-off squares a few feet from me. The soft sand made an odd chirping noise as I traipsed to the turtle nest. The dull ache in my calves was almost normal now, having come out to the beach so many times in past weeks.

The arch in my back resumed its familiar throb as I bent over the caution tape, piercing the earth with my spade with a satisfying crunch. A few minutes later, I was pulling out the first of my nest. The eggs were tough and leathery, but still felt delicate enough to be squashed like a grape if not handled carefully. Breathing heavily, I could even taste the strong aromatic stench of ocean brine as I finished pulling all the eggs from the nest. Slowly straightening, I cradled my bag of little treasures and ghosted across the blanket of sand, off to the research center once again. These eggs were safe from poachers, and the ones I found tomorrow night would be too…

Sea turtle conservation is no easy task. Helping conserve the environment to save the sea turtles is a quest! The conservationists are grand knights out to rescue the weak baby turtles, shielding their nests with long strands of caution tape by day, cautioning passersby to beware the “dragon beasts.” By night those cavalier saviors venture forth to keep watch over their precious cargo, roaming the lands with their red-tinted lights to keep away the barbarians of the beach. Those pesky seagulls are tomb raiders, out to loot the jewels of the sand and eat them for breakfast.

The gallant conservationist knights also spread the word through the streets, handing out parchments of the crusade, warning the commonwealth of the dangers of tormenting these helpless creatures. This doctrine tells of how to keep the lands clean, reduce the amount of filth in the waters, and prevent invaders from trampling the little ones.

So many turtles live with trash and litter in their environments when they do not have to. People are too careless nowadays and do not take the time to reduce the risks these animals have to face. Allowing things such as being too lazy to clean up the environment, consciously littering, and letting runoff from landfills spill into our oceans does not make our world any cleaner! Our lives only become worse from this happening! All of these factors can possibly lead to even worse occurrences as well.

Specifically, turtles become a main target of ocean debris because they eat anything that remotely seems edible. Researchers and environmentalists have to keep a constant alert on the waters for turtles that need rescuing from ocean trash. Sometimes the turtles just swim right past the trash, not even noticing it, but for the turtles that have choked on, or ingested plastic, they can die. That leaves only the hope that the rescuers get to them before they starve.

Advocacy

Everyone could use a little more determination in their lives! The whole concept of determination is to encourage yourself to strive to do better when trying to reach the goals you want most in life. Goals can range all the way from work to home life, or even from school to extra hobbies you enjoy. Being more determined to reach higher goals in any or all of these aspects can help to better your life! The same goes for the environment and the conservationists that are determined to save it. Conservationists have dedicated their lives to bettering our environment to save our planet and I think it is a great movement to follow through with! Specifically with sea turtle conservation, researchers and scientists dedicate their time to finding new information to help lower the risks turtles face. Turtles today have to deal with many threats and the information the conservationists finds is used to educate the community as well as find ways to reduce those risks.

Narrative

Walking down to the beach today I was shocked to realize how trashed the beach was. It easily reminded me of an ash tray for cigarettes and a gigantic trash can for garbage. Everything from cigarette butts, plastic and Styrofoam cups to glass bottles and metal cans were strewn all across the sand. The atrocious state of the beach had me thinking of how all the litter would end up affecting the wildlife—especially the turtles. Turtles are my favorite animals and I was sickened to think they would die if they tried to eat these items. It was right then I decided to become a conservationist for sea turtles! I immediately set my bag down and began snatching up all the trash from the beach. All I could think of was how the conservation of our ecosystem is just as important as anything else and we are part of the cycle too, so why not help save the sea turtles along with every other animal in the ocean and on the beach! I left the beach three hours later that day, a bag of trash in tow, feeling very satisfied with my self, knowing I did something good for our planet.