Sea turtles have been swimming the world’s oceans for more than 100 million years, persisting through natural predators, climatic events and even the mass dinosaur extinction.
However, their existence on Earth is now in jeopardy from human threats that are proving to be too much for sea turtle populations to handle.
With the advent of new gear and boat technologies, fishing has become one of the greatest sources of mortality to sea turtles around the globe. Each of the six sea turtle species found in United States waters is listed as either endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act which means that they may go extinct in the foreseeable future.
Even with protection under the Endangered Species Act, longlines, trawls, gill nets, dredges and other types of fishing gear in and around United States waters kill thousands of sea turtles and injure even more each year. Other human threats to sea turtles include ingestion of or entanglement in marine debris, pollution, coastal development, poaching, vessel strikes, climate change and predation by invasive species.
Oceana’s campaign to save sea turtles is dedicated to the protection and restoration of sea turtle populations in the world’s oceans. The campaign works to reduce sea turtle bycatch in fisheries, protect sea turtle habitat and develop legislation to protect sea turtles.
Save Sea Turtles launched a new PSA that is a clever and comedic call to action featuring Angela Kinsey, the hilarious ice queen on “The Office” and Rachael Harris from “My Boys” and “The Hangover”. Last spring the two comedians joined Oceana on a trip to Mexico to learn about and swim with green and loggerhead sea turtles at the Centro Ecológico Akumal and Xcaret Ecological Park.
Rachael and Angela’s PSAs are helping promote our campaign to save sea turtles, which is focused on gaining stronger protections from fishing gear as well as protections for key habitat areas. Out of the seven sea turtle species worldwide, six swim in U.S. waters and all of them are either listed as “threatened” or “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act. Every year, hundreds of thousands of sea turtles are caught unintentionally by longlines, trawls and gillnets.
Watch Rachael Harris and Angela Kinsey’s PSA ‘Get Turtles Off the Hook’ plus hilarious behind-the-scenes footage and a mock PSA by the ladies, then sign the petition to help save sea turtles, and adopt a sea turtle for the holidays!
