January 18, 2020
Haiyan Jindu Hardware A shopping bag is estimated to degrade over hundreds of yearsCo., Ltd.
With a final gulp of air, the hawksbill turtle executes a perfect butterfly
stroke and disappears into deeper water -- a rare lucky escape for one of
Kenya&China PS
sheets39;s sea turtles, increasingly under siege from humanity's plastic
binge."It takes a while but eventually after a lot of pain, and I mean it's a
reptile so it can't express pain like a mammal can in its face, but you can see
that it's just closing its eyes and its all sort of tensed up and all of a
sudden 'poof', it all comes out," he told AFP.
Green turtles were once a delicacy
in Kenya, but may no longer be eaten under laws to protect the endangered
species from extinction. but they're # still hungry so they keep eating and it
compounds, compounds, compounds and they explode on the inside," said Casper van
de Geer, manager of Local Ocean Conservation, which runs the Watamu turtle
rescue.But "sometimes they can't."It's a very successful story, we are hoping to
release it if not today, in the next two days or so.-
Sometimes they can't'
-Many turtles are found floating, barely alive, having eaten so much plastic
that they become buoyant and can no longer dive into the depths where they live
and feed.Fisherman-turned-environmentalist Kahindi Changawa, 40, looks with a
smile over the tank for Kai, a green turtle which has been recovering from
plastic ingestion at the Watamu rehabilitation centre for nearly a month.Dozens
of the endangered creatures need rescuing every year around the coastal town of
Watamu, where plastic litter accumulates in the Indian Ocean and the beach from
as far afield as Indonesia, Madagascar and Yemen, according to the product
labels.Ahead of the UNEA meeting to tackle the scourge of pollution, UN
Environment Programme head Erik Solheim urged action to stop the oceans becoming
a "plastic soup". die...1 billion tonnes of plastic had been produced to date,
most of it dumped into landfills and the oceans.
And by now it is pretty much
everywhere.Plastic is cheap, versatile and nigh-indestructible."Sometimes I find
(plastic) in the stomachs" of the fish he catches....As its human handlers step
aside, Kenzo struggles out of the harness, pushes hard with its flippers on the
sand, and slides into small waves specked with bits of plastic trash. Dozens of
the endangered creatures need rescuing every year around Watamu, where plastic
litter accumulates in Indian Ocean."Plastic ocean pollution is a key item on the
menu for ministers from over 100 countries gathering in the Kenyan capital of
Nairobi for a three-day UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) starting Monday.8 million
tonnes of plastic enters the ocean every year, the equivalent of a garbage truck
dumping a full load every minute. More (often) than not, the animal will.
In
Watamu, the locals do what they can."Some plastic is brought from the sea. To
their peril.Mohamed Iddi, a 42-year-old fisherman, proudly proclaims that he
voluntarily collects two or three large garbage bags full of plastic along the
Blue Lagoon beach every day..The problem is a global one, affecting all the
oceans and hundreds of animal and plant species. it will think maybe it is
something to eat. (Photo: Pixabay) Gently, Kenzo the sea turtle is lowered onto
a beach where a scattering of bottle caps, candy wrappers, yoghurt cups and
discarded flipflops scar an otherwise idyllic setting. On top of the laxative,
it was given anti-bacterial and anti-parasitic medicines, and appetite-boosting
multivitamins."It causes a blockage.Turtles confuse these items, bobbing and
fluttering about in the ocean currents, for jellyfish or other prey.-'
A very
successful story' -In July, US researchers said more than 9. when it finds
something like this.Most common are bottle tops, but there are also cigarette
lighters, toothbrushes, food containers, different lengths of string, drinks
bottles and of course, the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag. Some others is
from."Or they are in such pain that they recognise that they have to stop eating
and they basically starve," he told AFP at Watamu's Blue Lagoon as he repeatedly
bent down to pick up one piece of beach litter after the other.Once they reach
this point, few can be saved."Many others will not be so lucky. when people they
come for the enjoyment on the beach, for the barbecue, the picnic," he says,
pointing to large piles of collected rubbish, divided into categories, with a
special heap for shoe soles.."
Elsewhere in town, a project called Regeneration
Africa melts and treats the plastic gathered by volunteers such as Iddi, and
moulds it into paving stones and other materials to sell for funds to continue
the anti-plastic drive. "Ropes, the small ones. Because when the fish goes to
look for some prey.According to environmental group WWF, 8.For six days now,
no plastic has been spotted in the turtle's stool, Changawa says with tangible
relief."It has fully recovered, when you take it out (of the recovery tank) it
is flapping, it is fighting," he said.
A shopping bag is estimated to degrade
over hundreds of years, and harder plastics could be around for millennia before
they are broken down and absorbed in the environment.Turtles confuse these
items, bobbing and fluttering about in the ocean currents, for jellyfish or
other prey.On current trends, he warned, "by 2050 there will be more plastic in
the seas than fish.Kai was brought in emaciated, and unable to stay
underwater..At a turtle "clinic", van de Geer and his team tube-feed laxatives
to the turtles in hopes that the intestinal plug can be loosened
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