Lately, there have been a couple weeks of attention to the oceans of the world, have you noticed?
As many of you might already know, May 23rd every year is the World Turtle Day! For the last 15 years it has been an annual event started by the American Tortoise Rescue in order to create awareness, spread knowledge and teach about conservation of the oldest living reptiles in the world. Here at Kon-Tiki, we try to do our best to acknowledge and contribute to days like these. Turtles are some of the most beloved creatures we can find in the sea and organizations like PADI's Project Aware hold events in order to pay attention to this day. There are 7 different species of turtle around the world: The Flatback Sea turtle (Natator depressus), Olive Ridley Sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), Leatherback Sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), Green Sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), Loggerhead Sea turtle (Caretta caretta), Kemp's Ridley Sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) and Hawksbill Sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), of which the latter four are classified as endangered or critically endangered. The Green Sea turtle and the Hawksbill Sea Turtle are the most common ones that you can find around Thailand waters. Several of the different Turtle species likes to have Jellyfish on their menu. A big issue is that plastic bags, when in water, resembles jellyfish a lot and it is very easy for the turtle to mistake the plastic bag for their next meal. The problem is that the turtle tries to eat the bag and then gets congested and the turtle can't eat anymore and slowly starves to death. This is why we here at Kon-Tiki say NO TO PLASTIC BAGS! This is our small way to help from turtles and other marine life getting affected by what humans leave behind. We can all help by choosing reusable cloth or other natural material bags instead of plastic. Over 100 million marine animals are killed each year due to plastic debris in the ocean. This is just one thing that threatens the turtle's well-being. They are also at risk from illegal hunting and poaching, oil spills, artificial light from coastal cities, and other non-recyclable waste. Make sure to celebrate World Turtle Day on the 23rd of May every year and do what you can to contribute to these beautiful, majestic animals and the part they play in the world's oceans!
On the 22nd of April we also got our guests involved in taking part of the International Earth Day. It all started in the USA, 22nd of April in 1970 and since 1990 it is coordinated globally and celebrated in more than 192 countries around the world by the Earth Day Network. This is a day to honor the earth and do what you can to keep Mother Earth clean. We handed out bags (not plastic ones of course, as mentioned above.) and encouraged all of the divers and snorkelers that joined us on our trip that day to try to collect as much garbage and debris as they possibly could in an underwater cleanup during our dives and snorkeling stops. In the end, we collected and estimated amount of 9 kg's/20 pounds of mostly plastic debris. It might not sound like a lot, but considering this was just from a small part of the ocean, I would say we did pretty well and we are so happy and grateful for the help and the enthusiasm that our guests showed for being a part of this day! The Earth Day Network that arranges the Earth Day celebrations around the world every year, have partners such as PETA, Greenpeace, Amnesty, WWF and many more worldwide renowned organizations that strive to keep the nature clean, the future for our children filled with hope and to make sure that animals and plants benefit in the way they should. All of us at Kon-Tiki Krabi are very happy that they are taking this initiative and encourage us to push harder, think wiser and appreciate Mother Earth in every way we possibly can! We hope you would like to join us again next year to celebrate these days!
Last but not least, today is the world oceans day, where many organisations around the world creates events to save our ocean planet. Read more here:
http://www.worldoceansday.org/events/
http://www.earthday.org/
https://www.facebook.com/AmericanTortoiseRescue
