Plastics
A Growing Threat
to
Marine Life
At the 28th Annual International Sea Turtle Symposium held in Loreto, B.C.S. Mexico last January, Amber Pitt, Ph.D. Candidate of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Florida, presented a poster in the Public Education and Advocacy category. The poster was titled “Are Major Retailers Willing To Help Sea Turtles? An Attempt To Encourage Environmental Sustainability in Gainesville, Fl. USA Using a Sea Turtle as an Advocate”.
As a part of her research while doing the poster presentation for the Symposium, she created the poster on the right and took it around Gainesville to retail stores. Amber would ask if they would be willing to post this in their store for the public to see. She chose major grocery, pet supply, and discount stores. And even though none of the locations where the posters ended up were ideal, interest in hanging the posters was encouraging.
The poster on the right is the poster she used in her research.
One solution to this growing problem is to use a reusable cloth bag for shopping. If you don’t take the plastic bag home, it will be one less bag used and discarded to litter our landscape and endanger our wildlife or to remain in our landfills for thousands of years.
Because many sea turtles die as a result of eating plastic bags, which resemble jellyfish, their food, I asked Amber if I could reproduce the poster she used in her research in order to help educate people about the dangers of plastics in our environment.
I have made copies of this poster and have taken it around to businesses in Franklin County, as well as locations often visited by visitors to our area. ANERR, USFWS offices, and public libraries also have agreed to hang a poster. The three businesses that sell reusable shopping bags were happy to have the poster and there may be other retail businesses that I haven't found yet.
The three businesses that have reusable bags should be encouraged to continue stocking them for purchase. And the best way I know how to encourage them is by purchasing items in their stores and encouraging others to do the same.
Market Place Grocery located on East Pine Street on St. George Island sells Chico Bags and has a poster outside their front door.
Down Town Books located at 67 Commerce Street in Apalachicola also sells Chico Bags and has a poster at their display inside.
ACE Hardware located on Rt. 98 in Apalachicola sells their own ACE cloth bags and put a poster at their display, too.
To find out about Chico Bags go to www.chicobag.com
To find out more about Amber's poster presentation for the Symposium or the 28th International Sea Turtle Symposium, go to www.seaturtle.org
Bruce Drye St. George Island Volunteer Turtlers