- Below, I'd like to reproduce a letter of the greatest importance which I received by e-mail, It seems to me the text is in the public domain and that it should be reproduced by all of us as best we can:
When summer comes, we humans feel attracted to the sea. Crowds gather at the beaches seeking contact with the waves of the ocean which give us pleasure and restfulness. However, humans too often leave fatal trails on the sands of the beach. Millions of nylon bags and plastics of all types are thrown over their backs - and the winds and tides drag them out to sea. A nylon sack can travel the ocean for dozens of years without degrading. Sea turtles confuse them with jellyfish and try to eat them, drowning or suffocating in the process of trying to swallow them. Thousands of
dolphins also will be confused and die, drowned.
They don't have the ability to recognize this human garbage, simply they get confused, because "everything which floats in the sea is to be eaten."
The plastic cap of a bottle, tougher than a plastic sack, can remain unchanged, wandering the seas for more than a century. Dr. James Ludwig, who studied the life of the albatross on Midway Island, in the Pacific, many miles away from population centers, made a startling discovery. As he began to examine the stomach contents of eight dead young albatrosses, he found 42 plastic bottle-caps, 18 lighters and other floating remains most of which were small pieces of plastic. These young birds had been fed by their parents who could not distinguish between these pieces of trash, in the moment they chose their food items.
The next time you go to your favorite beach, perhaps you'll find on the sand some garbage which someone else left there. It wasn't trash left by you, but it is YOUR BEACH, it is YOUR SEA, and YOUR WORLD and you should do something for them. Many families play with their children a game of: "let's see who can gather the most garbage?" as an unforgettable lesson in ecology. Others, silently, collect abandoned plastics and carry them home, as sea trash. You can sometimes see them going by, smiling, knowing that they have saved a dolphin.
- "You cannot defend what you don't love and you cannot love what you don't know."
bravenet.com