By now we are all familiar with tsunami of December 26, which struck 11 countries throughout Southeast Asia and Africa, taking the lives if over 150,000 people. While this is truly a great human tragedy, it may well prove to be the greatest ecological disaster of our times.The damage to many marine and coastal habitats may well be permanent. Still mired in the task of burying the dead, the governments of the aflicted nations have taken time to called this an environmental crisis, and are rushing to assess the ecological damages. The initial force of the waves destroyed coral reefs, and coastal mangrove nurseries, redefined coastlines and scoured seabeds and beaches reaching kilometers inland. The receding waters brought back countless tons of debris and soil in to the ocean choking whatever niches may have survived the initial onslaught. The effects will have grave consequences for the entire marine ecosystem for decades to come.
While biologists are amazed at how few animals, both marine and terrestrial, have been found dead, the impact on their ecosystems will undoubtedly affect their futures. None more so than the Marine Turtles. The Indian Ocean is home to six of the seven species of sea turtle. Tragically, nesting season for these turtles occurs Late November through January. So not only have their nesting areas been devastated, but an entire generation of eggs have been washed away. For frail and endangered species such a loss could place them one step closer to extinction.
TARAS (and myself)will be supporting the Turtle Conservation Project in Sri Lanka (TCP). In this case an entire town has adopted marine turtle conservation as its primary economy. So supporting them is as much a humanitarian cause as it is environmental.
This program does not have online chanels for donation, If you would like to suppurt the TCP by cheque or money order, mail to TARAS (re: turtle conservation), PO Box 75092, Calgary AB, T3H 3M1
Herpetological Garden Canada will be accepting paypal donations and will be forwarding them to TARAS. These can be made via:
herpgarden@sasktel.net
Receipts will be issued for all donations, you can also contact me at same e-mail address or by PM for further inquiries.
Other places to donate online:
Naucrates/Phuket Marine biological Centre:
http://www.naucrates.org/Index/MarineBiolCenter.htm
seaturtle.org
http://www.seaturtle.org/
Born Free
http://www.bornfree.org.uk/tsunami.shtml
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