World Turtle Day

Today I was going to blog about our time at the Oregon Coast this past week, but when looking at the Bing Photo of the Day this morning I learned that today is the 25th World Turtle Day. This day has been set aside to bring awareness to these wonderful creatures in hopes to protect them and their habitats.

It’s no surprise to learn that humans are turtles biggest threat. We sadly learned about this fact years ago when we were visiting friends at their beach house on the Big Island of Hawaii. Our host asked us if we wanted to visit the resident, neighborhood sea turtle, affectionately named Albert. Absolutely, we said. We walked a few blocks from their home to a large salt-water pond where we saw a full grown sea turtle swimming peacefully in the tranquil waters. He swam right up to us and looked at us expectantly. Our host had brought some vegetable scraps which he greedily devoured as we tossed them into the pond. He followed us as we walked around the pond and kept an eye on us as we left. As we were walking back to their home, our host told us that he had a partner at one point, but some disgusting thugs decided one night in their drunken stupor, to kill the poor thing. I’ll spare you the gory details. Humans can be complete bullies; sigh.

A few days later, we visited an art gallery in Lahaina, on the island of Maui. The first thing that caught our attention as we walked in was a full size bronze statue of a sea turtle titled, “Lone Survivor”. Wow; we were instantly drawn to it and thought of Albert. There wasn’t a possibility for us to purchase it at that particular time, but they did have a much smaller one available. We purchased it without hesitation, and still to this day have it on display in our home.

After that experience, turtles have had a special place in my heart. I seek them out, donate to causes to help them and capture images of them whenever possible. Here are some of the photos of turtles and tortoises I’ve captured in our travels.

This island in Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens, Tokyo, is shaped like a turtle which symbolizes longevity in Japanese culture.

There were many turtles sunning themselves there.

A world away from Japan, these desert tortoises enjoyed the Nevada heat.

Some of you may remember my post about releasing baby sea turtles in Acapulco earlier this year. Click here to read that post.

There are many ways we can help turtles and their habitats; click here if you’re interested in learning more.

Next week I’ll share more about the Oregon Coast. We even saw some baby seals lounging on the rocks with their moms. More on that next week.

I hope these specific days set aside to bring awareness to various animals and environmental concerns will help preserve and protect them for future generations.

All the best,

Tricia