Turtle Ranch

We had to go to the turtle ranch. I mean, I was with my turtle-lovin' sister, after all. So here are some pictures of big turtles, little turtles, pretty turtles, a white turtle, and Ginger wanting to eat all the little turtles. Ok, not eat. But she certainly wanted to hug them all. We felt sorry for the turtles cramped together in little pens. There were a handful of other tourists there bemoaning the inhumane turtle pens. I thought it was ok. I figured they'd do better there than in the wild. Especially since Ginger and I talked to a beach-guy from one of the nearby islands who rhapsodized about how great turtle flesh tastes (like beef, he said). He bragged about eating some as recently as last year. When we confronted him, horrified, he said that, "oh, no. We NEVER kill them once they come onto the beaches. We only eat them when they get caught in the fishing nets and die." Whatever. We didn't believe him.
Besides EVERY SPECIES of seaturtle is either endangered or threatened.
Every one.
All of them.
Period.
The turtle ranch people told us that they keep them until they get quite big and then they let them go. Ginger asked if it wasn't bad to teach them to approach humans for food. A very good point. But the woman denied that it does them any harm, they get fed octopus and fish and seaweed or whatever sea turtles eat in the wild, so they know what to eat. And, come to think of it, it probably is rare for a sea-faring turtle to find itself close enough to people to paddle up and beg for treats (ignoring for a minute the fact that they sometimes get caught in fishing nets). So overall we figure it's a good thing. Of course, ideally, we evil human vermin wouldn't destroy their nesting beaches with vacation homes and god-awful condos. And, in a just world, the turtles would be able to live their sweet, unassuming lives in peace and happiness.
So what can you do to help?
Don't ever buy a new beach home and discourage your rich friends from so doing.
If you get rich and can't live without a beach home that you can use a couple weeks every year, and then it gets blown away in a hurricane, take it as a sign from the turtle Goddess and DON'T REBUILD.
Volunteer at a turtle rescue to guard nesting sites and help the babies make it to the water.
Don't ever buy turtle soup.
Don't buy anything made of real turtle shell.
Keep up with what your idiot, crooked representatives are doing about seaturtles.
Join GreenPeace (this will also get you hassled at airports - or so I've read).
If you can think of anything else, post it here.
Let's get out there and save some sea-turtle ass!