Making a difference

We got the opportunity to visit an Australian Seabird Rescue Center today for a field trip in my Australian Life and Culture class! We learned all about marine life and the dangers they have to deal with on a daily basis due to our pollution. Everyday seabirds and sea turtles are dying from plastic bags and other garbage that has made its way into the ocean. It is up to us to clean up the beaches and reduce the use of plastic around the world in order to save the marine life. Even though we were not able to see any seabirds (because the center didn't have any at the moment) we did get to see sea turtles that were being nursed back to health. There were two sick turtles and about four that were getting ready to be released back into the wild.




We learned all about how to catch seabirds and what goes into taking care of one. This is how big a seabirds wing span is! Just imagine catching one of these large birds...it takes a lot of skill and patience!

Half of the group looking into the tank of sea turtles

This sea turtle was nursed back to health and is about to be released back into the wild...and he was a feisty one!

The turtles would come up to the top of the water and blow water at us!

Squid for lunch! The rescue center doesn't like to feed the turtles a lot by hand so most of the time they have to catch live food in order to mock their natural habitat however, sometimes they are fed dead squid to help them gain weight.

This particular turtle was found by a fisherman and has fishing wire coming out of its behind...this is extremely bad for the turtles and proves that it thought it was food. We need to be extremely careful about our waste products making their way to the ocean...this turtle could have died if it had not been taken to this rescue center.

Some sea turtles, such as this one, eat plastic and can no longer swim underwater to get food. You can see the right side of the turtle floating as the left side sinks. This turtle will need a long recovery after the plastic is removed, but he has a fighting chance thanks to the rescue center!

The turtles that come to the center even have medical charts!

This rescue center was such a great place to visit! I love knowing and learning how we can make a difference when we are here and this place even offered us to come back and volunteer. I will definitely be going back to volunteer and make a difference!