Over the years I've seen up close the way sea turtle watching can truly change behavior, from kids to adults, fishermen to artists, even Michael J. Fox changed his life after turtle watching in the US Virgin Islands (see our blog post of May 8, 2009 for more).
New research from the University of Queensland (Australia) suggests that watching ocean wildlife causes people to become more green (as in environmentally-friendly though may pertain to people with sea sickness as well). Research fellow Dr. Jan Packer interviews visitors to places like the sea turtle nesting beach at Mon Repos or whale watching at Hervey Bay (both in Australia). She reports that seven percent of these people make changes in their daily lives to reduce their environmental impact four months later.
One of our top goals is to not only inspire these changes in everyone that goes turtle watching, but to provide concrete ways that people can take when they get home. One participant who just returned from a turtle trip to Baja this week, Melissa from Texas, reported that two of her newfound friends from the trip were inquiring into how their shrimp was caught at local restaurants and educating the waiter and restaurant owner on the problems of shrimp trawling. When they weren't assured that the shrimp was caught sustainably, they chose something else.
Visit SEE Turtles for ways to become inspired and find best practices for turtle watching.
No comments:
Post a Comment