A while back I promised more turtle pictures, so here is another photo taken in the Red Sea earlier this year. As you can see, turtles rather like to snack on the occasional jelly fish swimming by. This is as it should be but the problem is that jelly fish look not unlike something else increasingly found in the seas:
One turtle, three plastic bags = recipe for disaster
Evolution unfortunately has not yet equipped turtles (and other animals, especially birds) to deal with the garbage humans produce. As a consequence, countless animals die very slow and painful deaths from ingesting plastic.
The European Parliament and the European Council are currently debating proposed legislation to reduce (or even ban) the use of disposable plastic bags, which would be a start. You can find a petition to support this legislation (and more information) here.
For an inspired take on the issue by some very talented young people in the Shetland Islands, see here. And please, try to do without disposable bags whenever possible — are twenty minutes use (on average) really worth the centuries it will take for these things to degrade?
Walking the cat 