A beach is a place where people go swimming, enjoy water sports, or simply to soak up the warm sunshine. While a lot of beachgoers take pride in keeping America’s beaches clean and safe, some don’t. In fact, some individuals are so lazy, they don’t even take a minute to pick up after themselves.

Alabama beachgoers make a discovery that they hope to turn into a learning opportunity.

In Fort Morgan, Alabama, a group of people out for a fun day at the beach came upon a horrible sight. They found a dead turtle. This wasn’t just any turtle, but one of the rarest of its species. The Kemps Ridley sea turtle is so rare that it’s considered endangered. There it was, lying dead on the sand with its neck entangled in a beach chair.

Humans put the lives of sea turtles at risk.

Richard Brewer, a resident of Dauphin Island, had this to say, “We did it, turtles will not encounter chairs if it were not for us…heartbreaking. Truly heartbreaking.” Not only does he live on the island but he’s also a volunteer with an advocacy organization for sea turtles called Share the Beach.

The challenge of over-harvesting turtle eggs.

As the most endangered seat turtle around the globe, the discovery was beyond upsetting. What makes this particular species so rare? According to National Geographic, the main issue has to do with harvesting their eggs too much.

In a National Geographic publication, the experts explained, “And though their nesting grounds are protected and many commercial fishing fleets now use turtle excluder devices in their nets, these turtles have not been able to rebound.”

The rarest of the rare.

Statistics released in 2011 show only 20,570 nests in Mexico. In the United States, mainly Texas, only 199 nests exist. Brewer went on to say:

“Sea turtles are important enough that we will go to whatever lengths we can to protect them. It’s very heartbreaking to know that it’s something that could have been prevented.” With absolute disdain he concluded, “We had great news this morning, we believe that we have the first Kemp’s Ridley nest ever found on Dauphin Island, to find out that we had a mature female Kemp’s that just died because of something that could have been prevented is tragic.”

Advocates urge people to clean up after spending time at the beach.

Brewer and other advocates want people to come to the beach to relax and have fun. But at the same time, they want to remind beachgoers that the only things they should leave behind are their footprints in the sand. In other words, people need to leave with everything they brought. And if someone sees trash lying around, they should pick it up.

A completely avoidable disaster.

Although a lot of PSAs remind people to keep the beaches clean and safe, there’s still work to do.

Hopefully, beachgoers will begin to see just how damaging something as basic as a beach chair can be to an endan

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Source: Animal Channel