Ocean of Hope

Tag: plastic

Endangered Animals of Finding Nemo: Sea Turtles

Endangered Animals of Finding Nemo, Sea Turtles
endangered species in Finding Nemo
Marlin, Dory, Crush & Squirt from Finding Nemo

Did you know that 1 out of 6 animals featured in the movie, Finding Nemo, are endangered, including the green sea turtle?

Meet Crush’s brother

My name’s Crash. You may know my older bro Crush, dude, and my little nephew Squirt from Finding Nemo. Can you not see my awesome butt (not boat!) in the picture? Radical dude, I was in the movie too! Crush, Squirt, and I are gnarly green sea turtles, heh heh. We live in the righteous warm seawaters around the world, including off of the bodacious Australia where Finding Nemo took place.

7 species of Finding Nemo sea turtles

There are 7 rad species of sea turtles ocean-wide. It’s totally bogus, but 6 out of 7 species are endangered, duuude! Our righteous little eggs are often taken right out of a dudette’s nest by not so gnarly humans. Some dudettes can’t find any righteous beach to poop their eggs in, and city lights can confuse little dudes trying to use the bodacious moonlight to find the gnarly ocean to surf in for the first time, duuude!

Plastic is bogus, man!

When those little dudes and dudettes get to sea, man they better watch out for toootally bogus plastic. It’s everywhere, man. Don’t eat the plastic little dudes, but sometimes I think it’s food too bro! Plastic bags are totally bogus and look like jellies, dude! Not to mention bogus microplastics that also look like food. Watch out for nets too little dudes and dudettes! It’s totally not righteous, but there are less fishies in the ocean now and more nets to accidentally trap us. Not cool, but at least some righteous humans care! Visit SEEturtles or Sea Turtle Restoration Project to see how you can help, dudes! Thanks for checking out about the endangered Finding Nemo turtles!

Also see The Real Fish of Finding Nemo (the Tank Gang)

Alby the Albatross and Plastic, Plastic Everywhere in the Ocean

Seabirds
albatross fledgling & plastic
Albatross chick stomach contents

That picture is not me, thank goodness. My name is Alby the Albatross, and it is nice to meet you. That was an albatross chick who most likely died from eating too much plastic. Hundreds of thousands of dead albatross chicks have been found with at least a third of their stomach full of plastic. Why would an albatross eat plastic? Unfortunately plastic is everywhere in the ocean now, not just in garbage patches. Every type of garbage imaginable makes it to the ocean. Remember what Gill tells Nemo in Finding Nemo? “All drains lead to the ocean, kid,” he said. There is so much garbage in general that remote tropical islands whose sand has only been touched by scuttling crabs and wayward seabirds have garbage engulfing their shores. Plastic is a threat to all ocean life, but the most insidious are the tiny plastic particles that microscopic plankton consume. Small fish eat the plankton and then successively larger fish eat each other until a predator like a shark nabs them. The shark then bioaccumulates, that is stores, all those plastic pieces in its body over time. Even humans carry a few pounds of plastic around in their bodies without knowing it!

The single most important thing you can do to relieve me and my oceanic friends from plastic in the ocean is to:
NOT BUY BOTTLED WATER! Use a reusable water bottle that you fill yourself with tap water, or filtered tap water. We thank you for helping us!