Today is world turtle day and sadly 6 of the 7 marine turtle species are either threatened or critically endangered by our actions. Global warming, ocean pollution, coastal development, entanglement in fishing gear, poaching and illegal trade of eggs, meat shells and plastic debris are the main threats to these enigmatic creatures. So find out what can you do to help marine turtles?

One thing you can start doing today is cut down on your use of plastic. The United Nations Environmental Program estimates that on average nearly 50,000 pieces of plastic debris float in every single square mile of ocean. Turtles and many other marine species can either become entangled or mistake it for food items such as jellyfish, fish larvae and plank-tonic crustaceans. This results in death from either starvation or a blocked throat.

Many countries around the world have drastically cut down or penalize the use of plastic bags but many still haven’t, in Thailand at the local convenience store staff have tried to give me 4 bags for 4 items! And lets face it our usual eco friendly habits can become somewhat slack on our holidays. So as well as the usual phrases we try to learn before traveling to a foreign country – hello, goodbye, thank you and can I have a beer please, lets add no plastic bag thank you. To start you off in Thailand we say ” Mai (no) Ow (want) Toung (bag) and finish with Kha (for women)/Khap (for men) to be polite. So if you know how to say it in other languages post it on our Dive The World Facebook page and let’s see how many we can get.