Sea Turtles & Plastic

Working to Reduce Plastic Pollution in Sea Turtle Habitats

If there is a poster species for the worldwide epidemic of plastic pollution, it’s sea turtles. The mothers swim through islands of plastic on their migrations and crawl through plastic to find their spots to nest on beaches. Nests are impacted by toxic microplastic particles and hatchlings crawl back through macroplastic on their way to the water. They confuse plastic bags and balloons for their favorite food, jellyfish. Straws can get stuck in their noses and plastic spoons stuck in their throat. They get caught in six pack rings and ghost fishing gear. It’s inescapable.

We believe the long-term solution is ending single use plastic. But even if all plastic production was to stop today, millions of tons would still be floating in the ocean, impacting sea turtles, other ocean wildlife, and humans. We advocate for ending the use of plastic through our platforms while searching for ways to help get this waste out of sea turtle habitat, in ways that support conservation efforts and local communities and reusing this waste into useful products.

Our Plastic Campaign

SEE Turtles has been educating people about the threat of plastic waste since our founding in 2008. We have also supported a number of projects that have helped communities reduce plastic in sea turtle habitats (see below).

This campaign focuses on:

• Working with conservation organizations around the world to reduce plastic in sea turtle habitats. We raise funds to support new projects by sea turtle conservation organizations. See the projects we have funded to date here.

• Advocating for less plastic use. Through our social media, email newsletters, website and through Travelers Against Plastic, we encourage people to reduce plastic waste while advocating for governments and businesses to take strong actions to reduce the creation of plastic in the first place.

learn more about our plastic work