Why We Should Support the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital By Blake Loflin
Imagine swimming in the ocean and catching a glimpse of a beautiful sea turtle! Sea turtles are extremely important to our ecosystem and should be protected by humans. The
Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center located on Topsail Island, NC, is dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating sea turtles. There are several ways that our support of this hospital helps our ecosystem and our way of life.
Sea turtles like to eat sea grass. They graze the ocean bottom and eat sea grass like a cow grazes and eats grass on land. They help keep the grass on the sea floor short and healthy. These healthy grass beds are home to many breeding fish and shellfish. Unfortunately, the sea grass beds have been declining over the past few decades, and this may be linked to the decline in the number of sea turtles. This is negatively affecting our ecosystem. By supporting the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital, we are helping more turtles return to the ocean where they are able to eat sea grass.
Sea turtles also play an important role in helping dune vegetation grow. Sand does not hold nutrients very well, so it is hard for any plants to take root and grow on the sand dunes. The eggs laid by sea turtles leave nutrients in the sand that help vegetation grow on the dunes. The increase in vegetation helps decrease erosion which causes damage to our coastlines. Without dune vegetation, there is also a decrease in wildlife habitat. It is easy to understand how supporting the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital helps sea turtles to continue laying their eggs on our beaches and in our sand dunes.
Sea turtles can also have a large impact on our way of life. They play a crucial part in two ecosystems. The first ecosystem is the marine ecosystem. Without sea turtles, the marine ecosystem is negatively affected. Since we depend on the marine ecosystem for many types of
food, we would also be negatively impacted. The second ecosystem that sea turtles belong to is the coastal ecosystem. We use this ecosystem for a number of activities, so it is easy to see how
a decrease in sea turtles would affect us all in a negative way.
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