SEA TURTLE RELEASED AT ILAJE FISHING VILLAGE, BADAGRY: LESSONS FOR EPE AND IBEJU-LEKKI RIVERINE/COASTAL COMMUNITIES.

This morning, I got a video footage of a sea turtle being released into the ocean by residents of Ilaje Fishing Community, Badagry (watch here: https://youtu.be/zVWfxx2xcW8). In the video, the rare act of kindness towards the innocent creature is a pointer to the fact that the residents are highly aware of the ecological benefits of releasing it back to the ocean rather than eating or putting it up for sale. This is worthy of emulation for dwellers of rverine/coastal communities like Badagry.

After measuring the sea turtle on a scale, the excited residents watched with keen interest its journey back to the ocean amid joyful cheers. 

My utmost concern about this incident is the fact that the community where I hail from, Epe and by extension Ibeju-Lekki are both blessed with large water bodies like Badagry. We share similar biodiversity and it is of utmost importance for dwellers of coastal and rieverine communities to acquire the necessary conservation education, enlightenment and awareness for generations unborn to live sustainably with the environment.

Just like the seaturtle, another animal worthy of conservation when found in our coastal communities is the pangolin. Due to the fact that it is also going extinct, the government has declared its sale illegal but somehow, the nearly extinct scaled mammal finds its way into wet markets. Hunger should not be an excuse to act harshly towards animals going extinct.

In fact, if I have my way, I'd buy as many as possible from traders and release them to the wild. But who will bankroll me? Let me say whenever we are oportune to visit Oluwo market in Epe, some of these endangered species can be found there and rescued. Below are useful information about sea turtles and its ecological benefits.

What is Extinction?

A plant or animal becomes extinct when the last living individual of its species dies, causing it to vanish from the earth forever. If there is ever a time when the last green turtle on earth dies, then never again will this magnificent creature grace our world.

Species have been going extinct for millions of years; it is a natural part of the evolutionary process. For example, most of the species that existed during the time of dinosaurs have perished. Many probably went extinct because of sudden geological or climatic changes — possibly because of a large volcanic eruption or because of a giant meteor hitting the earth. Today, however, species are going extinct because of abrupt changes brought about by humans. Habitat destruction, pollution and overconsumption are causing species to decline at a rate never before seen in history. This loss of species is eroding the diversity of life on earth, and a loss of diversity can make all life vulnerable. 

INFORMATION ABOUT SEA TURTLES: WHY CARE?

Much can be learned about the condition of the planet’s environment by looking at sea turtles. They have existed for over 100 million years, and they travel throughout the world’s oceans. Suddenly, however, they are struggling to survive — largely because of things people are doing to the planet’s oceans and beaches. But what does this mean for the human species?It is possible that a world in which sea turtles can not survive may soon become a world in which humans struggle to survive. If, however, we learn from our mistakes and begin changing our behavior, there is still time to save sea turtles from extinction. In the process, we will be saving one of the earth’s most mysterious and time-honored creatures. We might just be saving ourselves too.

MAJOR ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF SEA TURTLE EXTINCTION

1. Sea turtles, especially green sea turtles, are one of the very few animals to eat sea grass. Like normal lawn grass, sea grass needs to be constantly cut short to be healthy and help it grow across the sea floor rather than just getting longer grass blades. Sea turtles and manatees act as grazing animals that cut the grass short and help maintain the health of the sea grass beds. Over the past decades, there has been a decline in sea grass beds. This decline may be linked to the lower numbers of sea turtles.

Sea grass beds are important because they provide breeding and developmental grounds for many species of fish, shellfish and crustaceans. Without sea grass beds, many marine species humans harvest would be lost, as would the lower levels of the food chain. The reactions could result in many more marine species being lost and eventually impacting humans. So if sea turtles go extinct, there would be a serious decline in sea grass beds and a decline in all the other species dependent upon the grass beds for survival. All parts of an ecosystem are important, if you lose one, the rest will eventually follow.

2. Beaches and dune systems do not get very many nutrients during the year, so very little vegetation grows on the dunes and no vegetation grows on the beach itself. This is because sand does not hold nutrients very well. Sea turtles use beaches and the lower dunes to nest and lay their eggs. Sea turtles lay around 100 eggs in a nest and lay between 3 and 7 nests during the summer nesting season. Along a 20 mile stretch of beach on the east coast of Florida sea turtles lay over 150,000 lbs of eggs in the sand. Not every nest will hatch, not every egg in a nest will hatch, and not all of the hatchlings in a nest will make it out of the nest. All the unhatched nests, eggs and trapped hatchlings are very good sources of nutrients for the dune vegetation, even the left over egg shells from hatched eggs provide some nutrients.

Dune vegetation is able to grow and become stronger with the presence of nutrients from turtle eggs. As the dune vegetation grows stronger and healthier, the health of the entire beach/dune ecosystem becomes better. Stronger vegetation and root systems helps to hold the sand in the dunes and helps protect the beach from erosion. As the number of turtles declines, fewer eggs are laid in the beaches, providing less nutrients. If sea turtles went extinct, dune vegetation would lose a major source of nutrients and would not be as healthy and would not be strong enough to maintain the dunes, resulting in increased erosion. Once again, all parts of an ecosystem are important, if you lose one, the rest will eventually follow.

Sea turtles are part of two ecosystems, the beach/dune system and the marine system. If sea turtles went extinct, both the marine and beach/dune ecosystems would be negatively affected. And since humans utilize the marine ecosystem as a natural resource for food and since humans utilize the beach/dune system for a wide variety of activities, a negative impact to these ecosystems would negatively affect humans.(www.conserveturtle.org)