Lara Fosbery – Year 11

Sophie Sawicki – Year 11

Animal Week

Last week we held an Emanuel School Animal Week, which we celebrated in a number of ways. Zac Levenson wrote a speech about endangered animals (it featured in last week’s Ma Nishma). The Sustainability Committee raised awareness for Australian endangered animals by posting daily on our Instagram account with a description of the animal and some ways in which you could help the animal, which ranged from donating to creating small habitats in your backyards. Animal Week culminated in a fundraiser, and we were able to raise $350.00 for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, a non-profit organisation that works to conserve threatened wildlife and ecosystems in Australia.

We’re so grateful to everyone who donated and implore people to remember the impact their actions can have on Australian ecosystems and endangered animals. Feel free to have a look at our Instagram page for some more specific ways to help different Australian species. 

Save the Turtles

A speech by Sophie Sawicki

Sea turtles have roamed the planet’s oceans for approximately 110 million years where they coexisted with various prehistoric animals and plants. Yet, due to various human impacts in the past two centuries, we have seen a dramatic decrease in all seven sea turtle species that are all now at threat of extinction. So, what have we done wrong? The answer is everything… from accidentally catching them in fishnets to the devastating impacts of global warming, us humans have found numerous ways to put sea turtles at risk, even things we do in our day to day lives could be detrimental to their vulnerable species. 

One of the biggest threats to sea turtles is the impacts of bycatch or incidental catch, which refers to when the huge fishing nets designed to catch fish for human consumption graze the bottom of the seafloor recklessly catching turtles among other sea creatures that consequently die of starvation or suffocate in these reckless death traps. 

Another human impact on sea turtles is the illegal harvesting of turtle eggs and the trafficking of other turtle products and while there are rules and restrictions in place now it still happens on a large scale globally. Sea turtle eggs are already extremely vulnerable with only 0.1 percent of hatchlings surviving to adulthood due to natural pressures such as predators however we are significantly decreasing these rates far beyond the natural selection pressures for selfish human purposes.

You may be thinking; so what does this have to do with me? I don’t fish with large nets and I don’t eat turtle eggs (we hope) however some of the larger impacts that we have are things you do every day that you may not realise are so harmful. 

Ocean pollution is one of the biggest factors affecting the population of sea turtles globally.

And while you may think well if I don’t physically drop my rubbish on the ground, how is a sea turtle going to eat it and die? Well you are wrong! All the plastic you have ever used is still on earth today most likely roaming the oceans or in an unsuspecting turtles’ belly who thought they ate a jellyfish and will now starve to death due to the plastic bag in its stomach being indigestible and fatal. Or even the turtle with a plastic straw wedged up its nose unable to breathe. And we can’t forget the microplastics.

Unfortunately, this is not the extent of our impact – global warming is the biggest issue that sea turtles face as their coral reef habitats are bleached and 98 percent of their offspring are female due to the gender of their offspring being determined by sand temperature – global warming increasing sand temperature means that there is a huge imbalance in gender making mating difficult as they return to their birthplace for breeding where they will all be female.

Lucky for us there are ways that together we can help save the sea turtles or at the very least help decrease our impact on this vulnerable species. 

• Reusing the plastic bag that came with your groceries or even better bringing your own reusable bags when shopping and asking your parents if they can do the same.
• Bringing your own metal straws when you know you will need one or just not using a straw at all. 
• Participating in coastal clean-ups or just simply picking up the rubbish you see on the street or at the beach 
• Investing in a reusable water bottle rather than claiming you reuse your plastic one when we all know their lifespan is maximum five weeks.
• You can also help raise awareness about their vulnerability to parents’ friends and other family members and make donations to organisations such as WWF along with others that help to raise awareness and protect marine ecosystems 

Thank you for listening and I hope this information encourages all of you to think about your impact on these vulnerable and crucial species.