I have always been very fond of turtles. It wasn't until I moved to Florida, and even then it after several years, did I really come to learn much about sea turtles in particular. My first exposure was when I worked for Disney in the education department at Animal Kingdom. We discussed, briefly, to tour participants the tracking system used on sea turtles. It was a mere glossing over.
Several more years past after that stint and then earlier this year I attended Turtle Day at the Marine Science Center. I witnessed a Loggerhead turtle getting released. I was just amazed and felt an overwhelming rush of emotion seeing him make his way out back to sea. My interest deepened 10-fold.
However, I knew very little about the life of a sea turtle. I know what hurts them as far as what we humans do to our oceans but I never knew the real perils they face the moment that they hatch and make thier way to the sea. This movie changed that.
It was fascinating, heartbreaking, breathtaking and an eye-opener. I admit, I cried and felt ashamed for the way we humans treat our oceans and the creatures in it. I came to care not only for the turtle, but for the unlikely creatures she encountered along the way. Creatures that we would meet over and over again despite the vastness of the ocean. Because, in reality, the paths they take are very small and so precious that the fact we are destroying them hurts to think about.
The movie was well made. It wasnt meant to make you feel guilty or ashamed but to help you realize that relatively very few loggerheads come full circle. The heartbreak was a by-product of witnessing how our actions (pollution and OIL SPILLS) contribute to the deaths of tens of thousands of baby sea turtles (god this was the worst part for me).
It instilled in me a resolve to take action to reduce the human impact on sea turtles starting with me. They have a hard enough time as it is.
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