Our field trip to... (Pt. 2) - Save Them All!

Last Friday, we discussed about our field trip and where we went. Today we are going to discuss the importance of sea turtles, what's happening to them and what can we, The students, can do!

Sea turtles are important (and created) because they, like all other animals, are part of the ecosystem and food web (It's roles is that it eats jellyfish, sea cucumber, crustaceans, and corals and eats a certain amount of sea grass) and if they just, suddenly disappear, then, the ecosystem will break down because one, then two, then four, then a lot more will become extinct because just one species disappeared. This happens because usually one species is dependent of another (usually for food) and if one is extinct, then the other species has no other way to get food (unless they are omnivores). Yet changing main food source also has a complication, the ecosystem becomes imbalanced, just like when the dinosaurs became extinct, the ecosystem became imbalanced then. More information here: Ecosystem: Anthropogenic threats; Planetary Boundaries: Biodiversity Loss; Balance of Nature



Yet, they are made extinct slowly by us, the humans! This is because we hunt, steal their eggs, litter, etc. just for our benefit (although littering isn't to our benefit). One of why they are dying is Global Warming, the heating of our planet, caused by greenhouse gases (like water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone). These greenhouse gases trap the heat, heating the planet.



But wait, why are they dying of Global Warming? Global Warming heats the ice caps, thus making the sea level rise and submerging the beaches and then, there will be no more nesting ground for the sea turtles. Also, sea turtles are sensitive to heat. Once the heat exceeds a level, they die.

Only 1% of the baby sea turtles get to live because of natural predators. Even a smaller percent get to live if you include humans. As 6th Graders, We can increase the percentage by:

1. Turning off lights near the beach
Baby sea turtles are attracted by any form of light (supposedly only moon light) to get to the ocean. Light bulbs can confuse the baby hatchlings to go there instead of the ocean. Even worse, they get attracted to light from fire and go into the fire and going to a fiery grave.

2. Reducing the amount of garbage we throw and cleaning up trash we see on the beach
Sea turtles can become tangled in plastic and trash both on the shore and in the water. Discarded items such as fishing lines, balloons and plastic bags may also be confused for food and eaten by sea turtles, usually killing them.

3. Being aware of sea turtle nesting areas and avoiding nesting and hatching turtles
Sea turtles are cute, and therefore tempting to touch and observe – but flashlights and people disturb turtles when they are nesting, or trying to nest, on the beach. Make sure to give nesting areas plenty of space, and do not disturb females as they come from the ocean looking for a place to nest. Also be conscious of where nesting areas are so that you can avoid stepping on the hatchlings as they head to the water.

4. Reducing the amount of chemicals you use
The chemicals you use in your home can actually wash into the coastal waters – killing plants and animals. It is extremely important to properly dispose of toxic chemicals and, even better, find products with less or no chemicals such as biodegradable solutions.



5. Lessening waste and pollution emission
Waste and pollution are the sole purpose why there is Global Warming. Using alternatives to the car can lessen the pollution emission and recycling can lessen the waste emission.

6. Not siding the opponent
Products made using sea turtle shells may be beautiful and sea turtle eggs may seem tasty, but this ensures the production of more products similar to these and the extinction of the species. Avoid these at ALL costs.

So, are you the pawikan saver, or the Grim Reaper of sea turtles? That's it for now! Cheers, Hope you had fun, Thank you for reading and PEACE!

External Sources:
http://www.ask.com/question/ecosystem-imbalance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas
http://www.conserveturtles.org/seaturtleinformation.php?%20page=whycareaboutseaturtles
http://www.fws.gov/northflorida/SeaTurtles/Turtle%20Factsheets/you-can-help.htm
http://www.defenders.org/sites/default/files/publications/five-things-you-can-do-to-save-sea-turtles.pdf

Our field trip to... (Pt. 1) - Pawikan?

Recently, the staff had a field trip to... BATAAN! During the field trip, we went to the Pawikan Conservation Center in Nagbalayong, Morong, Bataan and the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in Napot Point, Morong, Bataan.

We had this field trip because . We joined because not only it is required and important *for the species, the ecosystem, and more importantly, the world (no ecosystems, no us)* but this is our last field trip with Teacher Rye and in 6th Grade in TLT. Certainly, no one would want to miss this experience, after all, it is our last field trip. It was truly a memorable experience with all our classmates and T. Rye. We expected the field trip to be absolutely fun, exciting, memorable and educational! No on of us got disappointed because of this field trip. No expectations were missed at all! We were extremely excited even before the field trip even started! And yes, it was the best one ever!


Now, about the field trip. First we went to the Pawikan Conservation Center! The PCC is a conservation center (since 1999) that aims to help sea turtles' population grow and increase awareness of what is happening to them, yet, it is an NGO (Why isn't the Gov't funding this?!?). We expected to learn about how sea turtles (pawikan) live, how they reproduce, and baby sea turtles' behavior. We learned all of the mentioned and that the sea turtles' lives are threatened by humans (our species!) via eating, snatching the eggs, and *cough* littering *cough*. We also learned that, for one piece of plastic thrown in the beach, one baby sea turtle dies. Let us stop this torture of the Lord's creations by stopping the litterers!


We were given one hatchling to release to the sea. The hatchlings we released are olive ridley sea turtles (AKA pacific ridley sea turtles; Lepidochelys olivacea) that are part of the kingdom Animalia, the phylum Chordata, the class Reptilia, the order Testudines,the family Cheloniidae, the genus Lepidochelys, and are the species L. olivacea. Fact: It is named after the color of its shell. Fact: It is male if its tail sticks out of its shell. We chose this because it was the ones we met in detail! Its ecological role is it is a secondary predator or an herbivore. They feed on herbivores or other predators. We got to release an olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea)


Well, that summarizes the first part of our journey! Hope you had fun, thank you for reading and PEACE!

External Sources:
http://pawikancenter.org/
https://sites.google.com/a/bataan.gov.ph/tourism/interest/pawikan-conservation-center
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_ridley_sea_turtle
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/olive-ridley-sea-turtle/
http://loggerhead-turtles.weebly.com/food-chain.html

Note: the pictures aren't aligned because I used HTML. Sorry for that.

The Staff!

Disclaimer: No real names have been mentioned

We are the staff: a group that power this blog!
The staff are:

TheErroneousErrorOfErrorness (AKA Four): He is the main coder and a computer whiz that tinkers with his computer. He made the blog an posted this post!

AnimeBYE (AKA Seven): She is the main writer and is the most mature and responsible of the Staff. She's also the head.

Emmet (AKA Nine): He is the main photographer and is the best with CSS and HTML in the Staff. Also great with sports!

TheGirlWhoWaited (AKA Six): She is the main designer and a very huge fan of Doctor Who and Sherlock.

We made this blog to share our thoughts and our ideas about our field trip to Bataan and also *because "The urban gurU" (our teacher) told us to*. This is our Science Project, and we hope you'll enjoy it!

Posted 2/15/14 on 2107
Edited 2/17/14 on 2107