If turtles had feelings...

P/S This is a fictional story, based on real life situations.
            Living in the vast ocean used to be paradise. Beautiful creatures of all species, sizes and colours lived in it, creating magnificent underwater scenery that stretched as far as the eyes could see. Those were the days that I enjoyed the most, being able to swim around in the crystal clear waters with my brothers and sisters; swimming as far as our flippers could bring us. However, all this came to an abrupt stop that one fateful day. I remember that day as if it was yesterday; the day my brother was murdered.

It was about two months ago when my brother, Timmy and I decided to go to Jellyfish Cove as it was the peak of the jellyfish spawning season and thus jellyfish were plentiful at Jellyfish Cove. When we arrived, what greeted us were far beyond our expectations. Jellyfish of all sizes and species gathered there to spawn. Timmy and I quickly hid out of sight, so that we will not be detected easily. We waited for the right time to make our move. We set our eyes on our “prey” and when the right moment came, we struck.

My brother and I continued this friendly competition between us when we saw a group of unique jellyfish, one that we have never seen before. They were whitish, yet not as transparent as the other jellyfish. They did not have long tentacles as the others as well, with only two flippers with a big hole in the middle of each, attached to their bodies. Initially, Timmy and I thought of them as just another species of jellyfish, yet I noticed that they were partially floating on the water. Curiosity started to arouse as we swam closer to one of them. Timmy immediately reached out to take a bite, but I stopped him, saying that we should be careful. He responded by saying, “Don’t be ridiculous brother. It’s just another jellyfish”. I continued to express my doubts but he waved them off, claiming that I was over-reacting. Then, he took a bite. What happened next was the most traumatic moment of my life.

At first, everything seemed fine and he gave me an I-told-you-so look. I suggested to him that we should head home as it was getting dark and he complied. However, just as we were about to swim home, he started heaving heavily and was gasping for air. Then, all of a sudden, it all stopped. He stopped heaving and choking. I thought that he was alright. When I called out to him, he did not respond. I thought he was just playing around, so I nudged him with my flipper. Yet, he remained immobile. I continued nudging him and calling out to him continuously, yet he remained motionless.

Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice calling out to me. It was my distant cousin, Turry’s voice. He was older than my brother and I and always treated us as his own little brothers. I turned around and saw him and a few others swimming towards us. When they saw my expression and my brother lying motionless beside me, they asked me to explain what happened and I related the entire story to him. He explained to me that my brother had consumed what us turtles called “turtle-chokers”, strange, floating, jelly-fish like objects that were released into the sea by humans. Turry said that these things were poisonous to turtles and thus caused Timmy’s death. I was devastated and overwhelmed with sadness. I cried continuously as Turry helped me home. His friends carried Timmy with us as we headed home, so that our family could bade our last farewells to him. I lost my brother that fateful. He was murdered by humans, poisoned by the object they had thrown into the ocean.

The “poisonous jellyfish” in this story are actually plastic bags. Although this is just a fiction, the situation is anything is fictional. Every year, millions of sea turtles are killed, suffocated and poisoned by the trash that we threw into the seas. They are beautiful, friendly sea creatures that mean no harm to us humans whatsoever. Yet, sadly, they are on the brink of extinction due to our irresponsible actions of throwing trash into the sea. Unlike us humans, sea turtles are unable to differentiate jellyfish with plastic bags.

Let us work together to conserve and save sea turtles from extinction, before it is too late. Every one of us has a part to play in making sure that these gentle creatures are not threatened by extinction. Let’s stop this massacre before it’s too late. Small effort, big change.

So, please join our “Ring A Life” Campaign that will be held in TAR UC Canteen 2 Concourse from 16-18^th July 2014, from 9am- 5pm. Bring along your old and unused mobile phones, tablets and laptops so that you can help raise funds to support WWF-Malaysia’s turtle conservation efforts. See you there!

Written by,

Jonathan So