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Students from First Baptist Christian immediately started picking up plastics as soon as they pledged to be Turtle Rangers

One of the main problems causing a life hazard to turtles in the wild is the discharge of plastic waste into the ocean. Not only turtles but also other marine creatures consume the menacing plastic wastes, mistaking it for food. Owing to this alarming situation, our education outreach team came up with the innovative and enlightening idea of #3PlasticsADay.

Realizing the fact that this can’t be a one-person job but a collective responsibility, the idea behind this campaign was to make people aware of this extremely devastating state and to diminish the use of plastic as well as its improper disposal into the ocean. The initiative is shared through our education programme with schools when they visit for field trips to the Centre as well as at our turtle release events and pretty much any opportunity we get to involve school aged children.

Our turtle release programme for school students helps them better understand the seriousness of the issue and their responsibility towards the marine creatures. Taking this opportunity, our Education Programmes Officer, Shona McGill, educates students about the dangers of plastic on turtles in the wild and motivates them to take a plastic pledge - a promise to pick at least three pieces of plastics a day and put them in the trash. The plastic pieces could be anything from straws to bottle caps that turtles might confuse with food.

While not every child will get the opportunity to release a one of the Centre’s captive bred turtles into the wild, every child could become a Turtle Ranger! Turtle Rangers give children the ability to make a difference and save the species. The students exposed to the Turtle Ranger programme so far were all thrilled at the idea of helping turtles and readily accepted the challenge.

Your school’s or organization’s students can become Turtle Rangers too. To participate in our Turtle Rangers programme, email schooltours@turtle.ky or call 345-949-3894 to find out more about this programme.

Let us all work in unison to make an impact and create a better world for our future generation!