Imagine a vacation on Hawaii, playing golf, enjoying the fresh local fruit like papaya or pineapples.
Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it?
BUT: Hawaii’s golf courses and pineapple farms are causing tumors in imperiled green sea turtles, a studyrecently found out.
The link is an amino acid called arginine, which trickles down from the island’s nutrient-rich urban runoff into the turtle’s food source, riddling their bodies with white tumors.
“We’re drawing direct lines from human nutrient inputs to the reef ecosystem and how it affects wildlife,” said Kyle Van Houtan, lead researcher on the study, in a statement.Yes it is, until you see some blind or warped seaturtles Actually NOT.
A recent study published by Scientists at Duke University, the University of Hawaii, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) suggests that the tumor-forming disease fibropapillomatosis, a common cause of death among Hawaiian sea turtles is linked to fertilizers used for Golfcourses. Nitrates not taken up by the crops and plants wash into the sewage and into the ocean, where they help to produce invasive, not-native red algae. And this algae simply riddles the turtles’ bodies with white tumors that impede their movement and often leave them blind.
Read more here about the problem.
And if you want to do something: be a seaturtle hero and take the pledge here!
