Over the decades, with the serious marine and sea pollution, many sea creatures have died from eating plastic particles by accident, which seriously affected the entire food chain. For example, sea turtles often treat the garbage in the sea as crabs and fish and eat them, swallow floating plastic bags because they thought the plastic bags were jellyfish, or even accidentally inhale plastic straws and jam their nostrils. In addition, humans fishing sea turtles and global warming make the situation even worse. According to research, less than one out of every 1,000 sea turtles can grow up safely and successfully hatch their offspring. Out of the 7 species of sea turtles, 6 of them are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN Red List).
Located in Loggerhead Park, Juno Beach, Florida, Loggerhead Marinelife Center is a sea turtle research, rehabilitation, education and conservation center.
More than 35 years ago, the founder of Loggerhead Marinelife Center, Eleanor Fletcher, who is also known as “The Turtle Lady” discovered the abnormal situation of sea turtles nesting on the Juno Beach shore. She then started to rescue sea turtles. Eleanor believed that, in order to achieve a long term goal of marine rehabilitation, the most important thing is to educate the younger generation. The center now hosts thousands of children each year through field trips, summer camps, etc. Aside from that, more than 350,000 people visit this international educational center each year to see the exhibits and the sea turtle hospital.
How can I help the Sea Turtles?
ADVOCATE
By reposting and sharing the information from Loggerhead MarineLife Center, more people can understand and realize the importance of marine rehabilitation on social media.
ADOPT
You can support Loggerhead Marinelife Center by adopting injured sea turtles. These sea turtles. Your adoption directly benefits the sick and injured sea turtles that are recovering in the center. With that, you can also name your own sea turtles! In addition, you have the opportunity to adopt nests that are on the shore of Juno Beach and the center will also send you email updates on the nests at the end of nesting season.
https://marinelife.org/help/adopt/
SHOP
The souvenirs of Loggerhead Marinelife Center strictly abide by environmental protection standards in the manufacturing, sales and logistics process, and utilizes the revenue towards the sea turtle hospital in the center. If you can’t visit the center in person, you can also pick your souvenirs online:
https://www.shop-marinelife.org/
DONATE
Regardless of the amount you donate, the sea turtles appreciate your help! You can donate through GoFundMe or Facebook. These two platforms don’t charge additional fees to ensure that the amount donated to these non-profit organizations can have the greatest return.
https://marinelife.org/relief/
Feedback from PANO’s instructor Azusa Ueno
Loggerhead Marinelife Center is a nature conservancy based in Juno Beach, Florida which rehabilitates sick and injured sea turtles and eventually releases most back into the wild. My donation went to paying for medical supplies that will allow the center to continue its dedicated work in helping these gentle creatures return to a normal life. Preserving our ecosystem has become very important to me: I realize how much we benefit from nature yet take it for granted, often at the cost of wildlife. Even if it is a seemingly small effort, I do feel that we can all do our part in respecting and cherishing our planet.
Introduction to Azusa Ueno:
