Studies show that approximately 180 million Americans — roughly 50% of the country — go on a beach vacation every year. Beaches across North America are home to countless vulnerable wildlife species, and shores near the Atlantic and Gulf waters are home to sea turtles in particular.
With just three subtle changes to your beach routine, beachgoers can help protect sea turtles, nearly all of which are endangered.
Three small changes that everyone should add to their next beach vacation
Bring an extra bag just for trash
On a recent trip to the beach, marine biologist Katherine Sayler told Good Good Good that she came across several sea turtle nests, with loggerhead and green sea turtle tracks clearly visible in the sand.
“Within those tracks, I could see multiple pieces of plastic debris, a little piece of a balloon, some straws, and bottle caps,” said Sayler, who serves as the southeast representative for the nonprofit, Defenders of Wildlife.
“I cleaned all of it up, just because you never know what’s going to happen,” she said. “If that gets washed up, a hatchling — or another sea turtle coming in to nest on another night — could potentially confuse it for food.”
Sayler recommended beachgoers pack an extra bag and try to leave the beach cleaner than they found it.
“There is so much, so I just carry a trash bag with me or put it all in my beach bag,” she said. “If you’re looking for plastic pollution on the beach, you can typically find it. Your eyes might just not be attuned to it because it’s so omnipresent, so pervasive.”
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Reduce light pollution
For those staying at the beach overnight, Sayler advised reducing artificial light pollution as much as possible.
“When you’re staying on the beach, something people can do pretty simply is to pull their shades and turn off all of the visible lights,” she told Good Good Good.
“Just last week, I was staying at a location that had a pool, and all of the lights around the pool were really unbelievably bright white lights that were on for the entire evening — into the night, into the morning till 6 a.m.”
“For a sea turtle, and for hatchlings that are trying to find the ocean, those can be incredibly disorienting,” she stressed. “And that’s something we might not think about when you’re staying on the beach, but turning off the lights or just pulling a shade and closing your blinds is something that can directly positively impact sea turtles.”
Keep the beaches flat
In addition to leaving the beach cleaner than you found it, Sayler recommended leaving it flatter, too.
Any dramatic change in the beach’s landscape can create unnecessary obstacles for nesting sea turtles and their hatchlings.
Before leaving the beach, it can be immensely helpful to fill in holes and even knock down sandcastles — after the castle builder in question has left or taken a photograph, of course.
“That kiddo probably got a lot of enjoyment out of building it, but now they’ve gone home, so they won’t know that their castle is no longer standing,” Sayler said.
When it comes to keeping sea turtles in mind, Sayler boiled it down to just three concepts.
“Keep beaches dark, flat, and clean,” Sayler said. “That’s really the action item that everyday people can do to really help sea turtles rebound and increase in abundance.”
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Featured image: Vlad Fonsark/Pexels
