Euro turtle

The primary objective of EuroTurtle is to increase awareness of the plight of Mediterranean Sea Turtles. The website uses the turtle as a vehicle for Environmental Education. Awards and emails from users clearly show that the website has achieved its educational aims. The international appeal of the website has been an unexpected outcome. Its wide use in education by students and teachers demonstrates its value as an educational tool.

The site is an ongoing joint project between MEDASSET ￿ The Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles, Exeter University and King￿s College (Taunton), UK.
The content is regularly updated, and the site has received a number of awards. It has been recommended and selected by several international educational institutions, and in 1999 the European Union sponsored SchoolNet website voted it one of the top six environmental educational websites in Europe.
The website makes an important contribution towards the understanding of sea turtles and their survival, and provides a valuable environmental education tool for the classroom. Researchers can become familiar with these strange and enigmatic creatures that have survived through the age of the dinosaurs.

The Mediterranean shores are shared between people and many marine organisms. Once clean, free of pollutants and tourism, there is now a steadily increasing coastline population of over 300 million and a huge tourist industry. Garbage is becoming a major threat to this fragile ecosystem, not least because the waters of this beautiful enclosed sea are only renewed after more than 100 years.

Every year millions of marine animals die worldwide, due to many types of pollution. But it is the small pieces of personal garbage, casually discarded on the beach, which are often the most damaging.

Secondly due to the wide range of the plastic shapes, sizes and colours, and often close resemblance to food sources, species are apt to mistakenly eat these items. Indeed, research has shown that species select food according to colours, shapes or sizes. A transparent plastic bag in the water, looks very similar to a jellyfish, the favourite food of many sea turtles, resulting, once the bag has been ingested, in either the blockage of the digestive trace or the suffocation of the turtle. It has been discovered that one marine mammal had ingested 50 such bags.

Plastics constitute some 75% of all "recreational" waste found on beaches. All of it is harmful. Plastic bottle caps, drinking straws, string and sealing tabs are all swallowed by sea turtles along with plastic pens and beakers, which can break into small harmful pieces and have been found in large quantities, accumulated in the animals' stomachs. Plastic six-pack loops, that hold containers together, can appeal to young playful animals, such as seals and others. However, these games may result in the entrapment and strangulation of the animals.

Many plastics contain harmful organochloride compounds, such as PCB's, which once ingested, can damage reproduction and the animals' ability to resist disease. These substances remain in the body so that when the animal is eaten, they are passed on resulting in predatory animals, such as seals and dolphins, being affected the most. Plastics can also contain air bubbles which prevent turtles who consume them, from diving for their food.

In addition to these plastics there are even smaller items which cause equal amounts of damage. Plastic and foil sweet wrappers amongst others, can be consumed in mistake for small fish or crustaceans. They accumulate in the animal's gut and although the animal feels full, in reality it is dying of starvation.
Cigarette packets are a particular hazard. Firstly, there is the plastic pull strip and wrapper, which looks like small jellyfish once blown into the water. Then, there is the foil "freshness" wrapper, which resembles a fish, and the empty carton itself provides further pollution. Once the cigarette has been smoked, a concentrated accumulation of harmful substances is left in the discarded filter stub on the beach. These unattractive butts appear in their thousands on beaches across the Mediterranean, with unknown consequences on marine life.