Beach Pollution

My parents and I are in Ormond Beach this week.  Yesterday, we went to the Marine and Science Center in Ponce Inlet.  It was a very interesting trip.  They rehabilitate sea birds and sea turtles there.  One of the things that fascinated me were the sea turtles.  I love turtles, having one of my own.  I was sadden to see what has happened to these turtles.  The majority of the problems is simply digestive tract impaction from swallowing trash.  Well, why don't those turtles stop eating the trash.... that was one of my questions.  One of the tidbits of information given was that turtles cannot see as clearly as we see....for example, turtles (as well as manatees and other marine life) love to eat jelly fish.  However, they can't tell the difference between a jelly fish and a clear plastic bag floating in the water.  So, they eat the bag....which then gets trapped in their digestive system.  This could happen with other types of trash, also.  When their digestive tract becomes impacted...they slowly starve to death.  The other biggy was fish hooks, etc.  They swallow those and it causes a multitude of medical problems.  There was one turtle that had a pound of trash removed from his digestive tract, he died two days after.  There were xrays of sea turtles that had hooks all tangled up inside of them.  Why is it so hard for people to clean up after ourselves?  Last night I was walking the beach with my mother when I saw a strand with colorful beads on it.  I bent over to pick it up and it turned out to be a fishing line with multiple hook lines hanging from it and about three different hooks.  One, that would of severely hurt if I stepped on it....and two, it's turtle nesting season.  They are coming up on the beaches to lay their eggs, as well.  Plus, it wouldn't be long before the hooks were swept out to sea.  Why can't people just keep up with their junk?  Why aren't people educated on what the consequences are?  My mom and I were talking that anyone who stays on the beach in a hotel or condo should have to watch a video upon check in about keeping the beach clean and what could happen to the trash/hooks that you leave out on the beach.  Make people actually see what happens to the marine life.  Therefore, when they are out on the beach they would know what happens to that cigarette butt, plastic bottle, fishing lines, etc that they throw on the beach. Just a suggestion.

AND....this brings me to something that I saw a documentary on recently....the huge garbage patches in the ocean.  There are reported several, the biggest in the Pacific Ocean. Why do we not send huge ships out with bulldozer like scoopy thingys and get the TRASH OUT!!

To learn more about the garbage patches, here are some links:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15713260
http://www.greatgarbagepatch.org/
http://www.bing.com/reference/semhtml/?title=Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch&src=abop&qpvt=Garbage+Patch&fwd=1&q=garbage+patch

Click on the pictures below to make them bigger and see the full picture.