The increasing human population together with their attributed economic growth as well as their overconsumption is leading to a critical natural environmental degradation in which the humans depend on it for survival (Fuentes and Cinner 2513). A significant number of people almost half the world population today are living along the coastal regions. This leads to significant pressures on marine life. For a long time, human activities have caused a significant impact on the marine ecology at large and as well the population of sea turtles. Anthropogenic effect on oceans such as physical changes of the seafloor and biological and chemical pollution by sewerage, agricultural discharge, fossil fuel contamination, and industrial waste together with overfishing amongst other destructive fishing methods and marine activities causes alteration of marine ecology as well as genetic variability loss (Fuentes and Cinner 2516). Sea turtles population has decreased significantly due to human influences on the marine ecology to a threating level. The research question is; how does plastic pollution impact to sea turtle specifically in Asia? Taking this into consideration, this literature review focuses on the effects of plastic pollution on the marine ecology impacting sea turtles specifically, seeking to answer the research question.
According to Nabangchang-Srisawalak et al. (61) comparative research that was undertaken in China, Vietnam, Philippines, and Thailand which assess the capacity of households to willfully pay for the conservation of sea turtles as well as the capacity for mobilizing funds. The argument was based on the capacity of the willingness of the people to pay for conservation initiatives to protect sea turtles. The study carried out an interview session and collected information from the respondents. The findings of the study suggest that a lot of people give a low priority to efforts and initiatives intended for marine turtle conservation than when it comes to other public policy matters (Nabangchang et al. 62). Whenever people are asked if they would make a vote for or against the policy imposing monthly charges for the residents electricity charges, most of those respondents responded such that they will support the policy suppose the charges made are only USD 0.02 monthly (Nabangchang et al. 63). And suppose the poor were excluded from these charges, they would generate an amount of USD 1.52 million. With regards to the rate of the respondents, who can willingly pay USD 1 on a monthly basis, the probable expenses will still amount to USD 50 million annually, though mobilizing this is challenging (Nabangchang et al. 66). It was determined that the customary treatment to raise awareness probable is not likely for facilitating attraction for support since urban-Asians already are very privy regarding the presence as well as predicament for the sea turtles.
The study determined that it is significant to establish efforts channeled toward conserving and financing mechanism to be diverted to the improvement of people’s trust on the tax collected by the government as well as the government expenditure systems. The study also determined that charities were essential in exploring the capacity of willing contribution from the smaller population that volunteers to make the contributions (Nabangchang et al. 66). In essence, the study concluded that it is not until Asia come up with a high per capita incomes as well as reliable payment systems, the international countries requires to take the responsibility to finance the conservation initiatives in the area. This study is significant in aiding my research work as it seems to answer the research question. This study suggests the best method of involving the people in the efforts toward conservation of sea turtles which will help to increase the population of the sea turtles (Nabangchang et al. 68). This study gives an indication of how undertaking an interview is important in determining the level of voluntarisms of the people in participating in the conservation of sea turtles.
According to Brei, Pérez-Barahona, and Scrobl (96), they took to investigate the effects of polluting biodiversity through researching on the impacts of the coastal light pollution leading to the decreased population of the Caribbean Sea turtles. The authors focused on gathering a collection of sea turtle nesting as well night light measure formed out of a satellite. Having control from the surveyor effort, the economic facilities, as well as spatial spillovers, identifies that light at night substantially minimizes the population of sea turtles (Brei et al. 96). The study undertaken identified that sea turtles replacement cost has raised suggesting that the increased lighting at night for the last 2 decades has led to the loss of about 1800 Caribbean Sea turtles, causing a loss of approximately $288 million (Brei et al. 97). Moreover, the study discovered that imperative impact of nighttime light on sea turtles in the coming generations is more probable to increase. This study is helpful in answering my research question. This is because the journal’s study identifies one of the human activities that contribute to decreasing of sea turtles population. It has mentioned that nighttime light, is a human activity that has been determined to cause significantly result in the population of the sea turtles. This has helped to answer my research question.
As per Nelms et al. (166), plastic debris is currently pervasive in the marine ecology impacting a broad variety of taxa. The persistence of the plastic debris is across all marine ecosystem have suggested that the threat of plastic debris has increased significantly especially for the sea turtles (Nelms et al. 167). The exposure to marine plastic pollution has led to the decrease of sea turtles population. The authors carried out a research reviewing the proof showing plastic debris impacts to sea turtles as well as the habitats. The study exploited the literature review to obtain information that facilitated the research.
The findings of the study were that the sea turtles are perceive to be ingesting or get entwined within marine-debris. They determined that ingestion of plastic debris by sea turtles causes internal injury and blockage, causing malnutrition that eventually result in death due to starvation or poor health (Nelms et al. 170). It was found out that plastic debris entanglement causes laceration, accelerated drag which minimizes capability for forage efficiently. Additionally, they found out that plastic pollution significantly affects sea turtles, population. This study demonstrated that immediate action needs to be taken in order to understand this issue better together with its consequence in order to come up with effective and precise mitigation policies. This study is important in guiding a research however it has a gap that needs to be filled. The study has not recommended the most appropriate mitigation policy that should be implemented for this issues. Therefore, this research will seek to fill this gap.
According to Buckner, Hernandez, and Samhouri (1), they laid their focus on conservation efforts since they emphasize the direct effects that human beings contribute to the environment around them. Due to the recent research found in their case studies on ecological subsidies, has emphasized the significance to maintain nutrient exchange in order to ensure productivity and as well identifying the vulnerable subsidies on human behaviors (Buckner et al. 2). With regards to the author’s review, they assert and demonstrate how that human behavior change or eliminate nutrients and energy flow between ecosystems through their influence on the way of delivering subsidies as they get transferred. The study suggests that restoration of subsidy needs diverse actions to reverse the means of degradations (Buckner et al. 4).This study is relevant to this research and is very important since it answers part of my research question. This is because it creates a connection and illustrates how human behavior change or eliminate nutrients and energy flow between ecosystems through their influence on the way of delivering subsidies as they get transferred. This answers the research question on how human behavior impacts sea turtles’ population.
According to Eagle, Hamann, and Low (322), plastic pollution on the environment is a very critical threat and danger to sea turtles as well as human well-being. The main focus of this journal is to undertake an examination of previous sea turtle protection strategies to determine gaps and identify research opportunities as well as social media marketing strategy opportunity as a way of minimizing the effects of plastic pollution on sea turtles (Eagle et al. 325). The authors describe plastic to being problematic for a number of reasons including; plastics are composed of petroleum products thus being fossil fuel which have an impact on climate change. The authors have utilized the trans-disciplinary approach in drawing together conclusions different disciplines to show the main environmental pollution and by doing so determine that human activity of producing and reckless dumping of plastic material is the main environmental pollution impacting sea turtles (Eagle et al. 329). This study relates to my research question and is very helpful since it facilitates this research by identifying and giving an explanation of how plastic pollution caused by human activities are environmental pollutants that lead to the reduction of sea turtles population.
According to Fuentes, MMPB, and Cinner (2513), managers together with conservationists usually require to prioritize the effects of climate change to mitigate in their list of threats. The main focus of this journal is on sea turtles management as they encounter climate change. The author asserts that the sea turtle life stages are capable of being affected negatively by different climatic processes like changed cyclonic activity, alleviated sand temperatures, and sea levels variation (Fuentes and Cinner 2515). To address their research question, they provide a systematic strategy of elicit expert knowledge in estimating the relative effect of climate process on sea turtle’s reproduction process. They identify that an increase in sand temperature causes the biggest threat to the sea turtles’ reproduction system, preceded by the rising sea levels as well as the changed cyclonic processes. The concept of managing sea turtle as they encounter climate change that is focused on in this journal relates to my research question which my focus is to determine how human activities or behavior contribute to reduction sea turtle population (Fuentes and Cinner 2517). This study answers the research question as it determines that managers and conservationist play a role in the conservation of sea turtle’s population by prioritizing the effects of climate change so as to effectively mitigate in their list of threats.
According to Pagas, Coghlan, Stronza, and Rocha (91), conservation efforts and initiatives have been pushed for several years for the sake of economic benefit such as ecotourism. The authors’ main focus is to determine the aspects driving people to advocate for conservation initiatives with regards to behaviors and values. The conceptual model which the study adopted is the assigned values model to give an explanation of behaviors and values formulation in relation to sea turtles in TAMAR, a Brazilian ecotourism project (Pegas et al. 96). The study identifies village breaches to be main nesting sites for the sea turtles and due to the uncontrolled human behavior of regular traditional harvesting, it has been a threat to sea turtles population. This study is important to this research since it explains how the human behavior of uncontrolled traditional regular harvesting of sea turtles leads to a decrease in the sea turtle population. It further expounds the understanding of the cause of human behavior on the reduction of sea turtle population by relating the economic perception of humans towards sea turtles and the ecological perception towards sea turtles, therefore, creating a good understanding on human activities that impact the sea turtles population.
According to Golden (2) the anticipated global climate change that in the future is likely to significantly impact living organisms, and specifically sea turtles. Since sea turtles depend on marine and terrestrial habitats in order to survive, and since coastal regions have already experienced extensive losses because of the raised sea levels that are caused by climate change that resulted from anthropogenic activities (Golden 4). The author took a literature review to analyze the aspects contributing to the population status of sea turtles and also a critical analysis of turtle adaptability to climate change. The study focused case studies of Cape Cod Bay as well as Costa Rica to examine the severity of the threat that sea turtles are facing (Golden 6). The findings were that sea turtles are already experiencing the impact of climate change and will continue to experience the more in the future. Actually, the changes in sea level rise, air temperature levels caused by global warming causes a decrease in sea turtles population (Golden 7). This study identifies the effects of global climate change to the population of sea turtles. It is significant in facilitating this research since it expounds on the causes of sea turtles’ decreased population. However, the author has failed to establish a substantial connection of between anthropogenic activities that cause global warming which leads to climate change that eventually impacts the sea turtles population. Nonetheless, this research will seek to address this issue.
To sum up, as shown in the literature above, sea turtles population has significantly reduced. Anthropogenic factors has been identified to be the most cause for the reduction of sea turtles population. The literature has identified and explained the how the anthropogenic activities have led to the decrease in sea turtles population providing a better understanding and paving way on the appropriate ways of mitigating this issue.