Keep Your Handle, Save The Turtle
Dear Human,
It’s me.
Frankie 🐢.
Resident sea turtle. Ocean dweller. Occasional jellyfish enthusiast.
Today’s a big day.
May 23rd: World Turtle Day
My moment. My red carpet. My TED Talk.
But instead of partying, I’m dodging... plastic. Again.
Let’s cut to the seaweed:
I almost swallowed a toothbrush handle yesterday. Again. Thought it was a squid. It was not a squid. It was trash. Your trash. 🫠
Trash Talk
Look, I’m not here to guilt trip you (ok maybe a little). But here are the stats:
Over 1 million marine animals die each year because of ocean plastic.
Sea turtles? We’re the poster kids for accidental plastic snacking.
Research suggests that 52% of the world’s sea turtles have ingested plastic waste, mistaking it for food like jellyfish or algae.
I had a great-uncle who passed in the Mediterranean that was found to have ingested up to 67 pieces of macroplastic, including everyday items like bottle caps and even a Halloween toy. Bless his soul.
Plastic doesn’t just harm turtles through ingestion. Entanglement in plastic fishing nets and debris can drown turtles or prevent hatchlings from reaching the sea.
Your toothbrush? One of the sneakiest culprits. Small enough to get lost in the system and toxic enough to stay for 500 years. That handle you tossed in 2003? Yeah, it’s probably still floating around. It doesn’t just disappear. It drifts. It sinks. It breaks down into microplastics that stay forever…like that one ex who won’t stop watching your stories.
Over 3.6 billion plastic toothbrushes are discarded worldwide every year, many ending up in landfills or the ocean, where they persist for centuries. Plastic toothbrushes are small, lightweight, and easily escape waste management systems, making them a common item found in marine environments. Marine animals, including turtles, can mistake discarded toothbrushes and other small plastics for food, leading to blockages, malnutrition, or death.
An estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year, a figure projected to more than double by 2040 if current trends continue. Plastic pollution is not only a threat to turtles but also to dolphins, whales, seals, and seabirds. Entangling fishing gear alone kills over 300,000 dolphins, porpoises, and small whales annually. In fact, Loggerhead turtles are being studied as “bioindicators” to gauge the scale and impact of plastic pollution in marine environments.
Loggerhead turtles! Yep! That’s me! I’m a bioindicator for your pollution!
So What Does This Have to Do With World Turtle Day?
World Turtle Day is about raising awareness and helping humans get it together.
Because while we turtles have survived the dinosaurs, we might not survive... you.
Let that sink in (like microplastics).
How to Be Less Trashy This World Turtle Day
🪥 Swap your brush for one that doesn’t ghost the planet (hi, BRiN SeaDifferently 👋)
🥤 Say no to single-use plastic anything (Remember our last article…yikes to Colgate! Consider swapping to Solid Toothpaste)
♻️ Supporting Recycling Initiatives
🏖 Join a beach cleanup or donate to turtle rescue orgs
📲 Share this article with a trashy friend (we all have one)
With slightly exasperated love,
Tired. Still cute. Still worth saving
.