Guest Post: Turtles and Nurdles
By Anna Cummins on September 27, 2010
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The following beautifully written guest post is by Brian Miller, a dedicated LA educator who worked with Global Explorers this summer leading students on a trip to Costa Rica. Read his account of studying plastic debris on beaches where Sea Turtles nest.
My alarm went off at 5:15 am but, muffled by the chorus of the Costa Rican tropical forest and waves in the distance, it was hardly audible. I met my group of students and teachers from Oakland California traveling with the non-profit organization, Global Explorers, and walked the 3 minutes to the beach hoping to get a glimpse of young sea turtles emerging from their nest.
I stepped onto the dark sand and could already feel the equatorial sun radiating back at me. Looking up, it appeared that a tractor had spent the evening zig-zagging back and forth from the crashing waves to the green forest at the edge of the sand.
“Hey, look up there” one of the high school students yelled. From a hole the size of a large bathtub, the shell of an Atlantic Green Sea Turtle could be seen moving in jerky motions followed by long stretches of rest. I could see the determination in her ancient eyes as she struggled to camouflage her eggs and return to the see. In the dim morning light, I was able to make out the details of her face that I had missed in my previous night patrols for turtles. With the students, we noticed the subtle shades of greens, and greys, and the way that the shapes on her neck appeared to be a mosaic of tiles assembled just right. From her large deep black eyes, tears formed a line down her face and into the sand.
She left the nest and moved slowly back towards the sea leaving behind her own tractor-like prints in the sand.
For miles in both directions, I could see the evidence of other holes like the one she had dug and then covered. Some had scattered egg shells strewn about where dogs and other animals had raided the nest. Many were surrounded by plastic! Shoes, bottles, tooth brushes, lighters, and other reminisces of the “plasticine era” littered the beach.
The previous day, the students had surveyed the plastics on the beach and found that the beach was a confetti of tiny particles of plastic that had been broken up by the sun and waves before landing on this beach in Tortugeuero. In the student’s study of the plastics on this beach, they found hundreds of nurdles (pre-production plastic pellets) and filled a zip-lock bag full of small straws that they concluded were the sticks that hold lollipops.
The students, teachers, and I walked the beach for an hour picking up plastic trash to throw away. I showed the students the arm of a doll that I had brought with me from home. I had found the doll’s arm on a similar beach that I had helped to clean and I explained to the students that I kept the doll’s arm on my window sill at home to remind me to work on reducing my use of disposable plastics in my everyday life. I encouraged the students to do the same. As if comic relief for our otherwise eye opening beach clean up, students found and brought me a plastic doll leg and later torso to complete my souvenir doll.
The students from Oakland have since returned home and have been mobilizing to reduce the use of disposable plastics in their community and at their school. This week they created a Facebook “event” encouraging people to bring their own plate and fork instead of using disposable products. With close to 200 “attendees” already, an inspiring message on their page reads, “Keep in mind that this is a WORLDWIDE event... not just at Oakland High School. Our goal is to get people to raise the awareness of the effects plastic and styrofoam have on our environment. This is your chance to be a leader in YOUR community and show people you're better than plastic and styrofoam! ONCE AGAIN, this event is going on E V E R Y W H E R E !”
My alarm went off at 5:15 am but, muffled by the chorus of the Costa Rican tropical forest and waves in the distance, it was hardly audible. I met my group of students and teachers from Oakland California traveling with the non-profit organization, Global Explorers, and walked the 3 minutes to the beach hoping to get a glimpse of young sea turtles emerging from their nest.
I stepped onto the dark sand and could already feel the equatorial sun radiating back at me. Looking up, it appeared that a tractor had spent the evening zig-zagging back and forth from the crashing waves to the green forest at the edge of the sand.
“Hey, look up there” one of the high school students yelled. From a hole the size of a large bathtub, the shell of an Atlantic Green Sea Turtle could be seen moving in jerky motions followed by long stretches of rest. I could see the determination in her ancient eyes as she struggled to camouflage her eggs and return to the see. In the dim morning light, I was able to make out the details of her face that I had missed in my previous night patrols for turtles. With the students, we noticed the subtle shades of greens, and greys, and the way that the shapes on her neck appeared to be a mosaic of tiles assembled just right. From her large deep black eyes, tears formed a line down her face and into the sand.
She left the nest and moved slowly back towards the sea leaving behind her own tractor-like prints in the sand.
For miles in both directions, I could see the evidence of other holes like the one she had dug and then covered. Some had scattered egg shells strewn about where dogs and other animals had raided the nest. Many were surrounded by plastic! Shoes, bottles, tooth brushes, lighters, and other reminisces of the “plasticine era” littered the beach.
The previous day, the students had surveyed the plastics on the beach and found that the beach was a confetti of tiny particles of plastic that had been broken up by the sun and waves before landing on this beach in Tortugeuero. In the student’s study of the plastics on this beach, they found hundreds of nurdles (pre-production plastic pellets) and filled a zip-lock bag full of small straws that they concluded were the sticks that hold lollipops.
The students, teachers, and I walked the beach for an hour picking up plastic trash to throw away. I showed the students the arm of a doll that I had brought with me from home. I had found the doll’s arm on a similar beach that I had helped to clean and I explained to the students that I kept the doll’s arm on my window sill at home to remind me to work on reducing my use of disposable plastics in my everyday life. I encouraged the students to do the same. As if comic relief for our otherwise eye opening beach clean up, students found and brought me a plastic doll leg and later torso to complete my souvenir doll.
The students from Oakland have since returned home and have been mobilizing to reduce the use of disposable plastics in their community and at their school. This week they created a Facebook “event” encouraging people to bring their own plate and fork instead of using disposable products. With close to 200 “attendees” already, an inspiring message on their page reads, “Keep in mind that this is a WORLDWIDE event... not just at Oakland High School. Our goal is to get people to raise the awareness of the effects plastic and styrofoam have on our environment. This is your chance to be a leader in YOUR community and show people you're better than plastic and styrofoam! ONCE AGAIN, this event is going on E V E R Y W H E R E !”
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