Save the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle!
Each and every animal on earth fulfills a niche, or duty, in the environment and unfortunately, the true value is often not recognized until it is too late. Unfortunately, endangered species rarely are able to restore their population to a strong number because of how little we as humans do to help them. The leading causes of extinction are habitat fragmentation, agriculture, human overpopulation, deforestation, and hunting/poaching. (Top Five Causes of Species Extinction, 2014) Each of these is human-induced actions that are quickly killing off the animals species currently living on earth. Isn’t it baffling to know that our society can do so much to help keep these species alive for future generations to see and experience, but aren’t doing anything about it? It is completely possible to help these animals survive as a species and preserve them, but the ball is in our court as a species whether or not it is important enough to do so.
It is easy to forget the fact that our world is a massive web of life that connects to every part of the world. If one part of the food web is severed, every other part is affected as well and if the web suffers enough loss everything crumbles. In direct relation to the Olive Ridley sea turtle, they are a key predator in the ocean because they eat a lot of types fish and shellfish like jellyfish and crab. Species like the ones the Olive Ridley consume would easily overpopulate if they didn’t have a natural predator to control overall population (Wilson, E.G., Miller, K.L., Allison, D. and Magliocca, M., n.d.). If they didn’t have any danger in the open ocean, the population would continue to grow until the species would use up all of the resources that they need. Sea turtles prevent this from happening because they need to eat them to survive, thus thinning out the population and keeping it at a controlled level.
Lena's Opinion
Baby Olive Ridley being released into the wild. (Steve Jurvetson, 2012)
After knowing everything that these amazing turtles do for us, what would need to be done? Would it be worth it? As previously stated, habitat fragmentation is the number one leading cause of species extinction (Top Five Causes of Species Extinction, 2014) and starting off there would be ideal. Their nesting site lies on beautiful beaches all over the world, mainly on the shore of Rancho Nuevo, Mexico (Olive Ridley Sea Turtle, 2018). There are a number of hotels right on the beach that destroy a huge part of the nesting sites that the Olive Ridley needs to lay eggs. We cannot allow hotels to be able to build on sea turtle nesting sites. However, this doesn’t mean that people can’t be on the beach period, there just need to be limitations especially during nesting season when all of the baby sea turtles are traveling to the ocean. It’s a small price to pay for such an amazing payoff to help save an entire species!
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Sarah's Opinion
Olive Ridley nesting in Oaxaca, Mexico. (Claudio Giovenzana, 2010)
It’s difficult to imagine the world without the Olive Ridley sea turtle mainly because how how symbolic it is, along with other species of sea turtles as well. It is such a well known animal and their very existence already inspires so many kids, parents, and teachers to work towards protecting and preserving them for others to see. All life deserves to be here on this earth with us especially when they hold such a massive impact on the entire planet and every life on it. Putting in the effort to save the Olive Ridley would not only be a huge step towards helping the ocean, but also helping our economy as well. I, personally, feel very strongly towards helping to save the Olive Ridley because I wouldn’t want to see what the world would look like without them. Let's make an effort and work to save the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle!
The Olive Ridley Sea Turtle is a very important species for the health of our oceans. They provide food for other species, maintain a balanced food web, benefit ocean floor ecosystems and improve nesting beaches. I believe that we should save the Olive Ridley Sea turtle because of their vital role in our oceans ecosystems. When I first heard about the issue, I thought that it was too late to fix the problem. With hundreds of sea turtles slaughtered each day from human-related activity such as commercial fishing and poaching (Herbst, 2015); I thought that there was no way that the Olive Ridley could be saved. But there is hope. Many organizations such as The Convention on Migratory Species and the Worldwide Life Fund have dedicated themselves to saving the Olive Ridley and countries such as Costa Rica and Sri Lanka have created many sanctuaries and refuges were the Olive Ridley can roam free from harm. Though the situation may be dire right now, it is looking up. That is why we should do whatever we can to save the Olive Ridley.
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Looking at the big picture, with only seven species of sea turtles living on this earth one going extinct could have detrimental effects on our oceans, possibly causing even more species to go extinct.The Olive Ridley is an important keystone species, meaning that if they were to disappear the ecosystem around them would fall apart. Healthy oceans need sea turtles in order to function. Even at diminished levels, Olive Ridley Sea turtles play a fundamental role in a marine ecosystem.
Environmental aspects aside, the economic value of the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle is one of importance. The Olive Ridley and the species that rely on it are an important attraction for marine tourism, which is a major source of income for many countries.According to the WWF “Marine turtle tourism brings in almost three times as much money as the sale of turtle products such as meat, leather, and eggs”. It shows that the worldwide decline in sea turtle populations jeopardizes jobs, tourism and coastal economies, especially in developing countries, two-thirds of which have sea turtles.” This means that even if one species of sea turtle goes extinct, many humans will suffer the economic consequences.
The Olive Ridley is an extremely important species that we must save in order for our oceans to remain intact. It is important to keep in mind that saving the Olive Ridley will not be an easy task, as it is for any endangered species. But saving the Olive Ridley is well worth our time. In order to save the Olive Ridley Sea turtle, we must not push for better environmental laws and acts to protect the Olive Ridley large-scale environmental and economic threats, we must make changes to our day to day actions that can affect the Olive Ridley. With enough hard work and effort, the Olive Ridley will be saved keeping our marine ecosystems unharmed and economies across the globe intact.
Let's save the Olive Ridley!
An Olive Ridley with a Diver. (Lew,2015)
Illegal poacher capturing an Olive Ridley. (Willis,2015)
I need your help!