A Sea Turtle Love Story

When two Loggerhead turtles finally meet in this vast and unrelenting ocean, it's really one of nature's greatest events; only about "one in ten thousand make it that far". Then they would go separate ways and the female would begin her incredible and tiresome journey alone in finding suitable nesting sites for her eggs, guided by her instincts and unwavering motivation.

This is not a turtle leisurely strolling on the beach; this is a female turtle almost completing her maternal duties. It's not easy work at all for such a heavily built marine animal walking on land.

A mother turtle's treasures.

Most of the turtles that have survived the merciless onslaught from sea birds, crabs and other predators when they were babies bear horrible anthropogenic scars when they reach adulthood. They are constantly subject to an almost never-ending list of threats (as with most wildlife): pollution and oil spills, hunting, exploitation, habitat fragmentation, injuries from vessel contact, entanglement from long-line fishing, plastic bags and other rubbish dumped at sea, climate change as well as threats from their own natural predators.

Love at first sight.

I re-watched the 'love' scene from the Turtle documentary on the plane over and over again because it is so beautiful and emotional, although I was disappointed to find out that it was funded by Seaworld. Nevertheless, this is a great film that documents the life of a turtle that begins from when it was a little hatchling crawling out from its underground nest- so strong and well-oriented yet so fragile, with it's survival depending on pure luck.

Plastic bags are one of the leading causes of marine animal deaths.

Away from this wonderful and bittersweet sea turtle story and onto captivity issues: Surely SeaWorld would know and understand that turtles are made to travel and not to be kept at aquariums? Marine parks and aquariums do have its conservation and educational value, but it's cruel and the significance is small compared with seeing animals in the wild, through documentaries or conserving the immediate environment. Placing animals -especially those that are migratory or highly intelligent such as dolphins and turtles- in captivity for profitable reasons often means stealing them from the wild; it is appalling and disconcerting as it is illustrative of the ill values we are teaching our future generations.

Christie Wong