Let's talk today about the importance of turtles.
Surprisingly (or not surprisingly) I couldn't find any information on the government using turtles for any weird projects. Quite the opposite. They are heavily protected.
Why?
In his book Researches Into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization, the turn-of-the-20th-century anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor writes that the world turtle concept likely first appeared in Hindu mythology. In one Vedic story, the form of the god Vishnu’s second avatar, Kurma, is a great turtle, which provides a celestial foundation upon which a mountain is balanced.
In the creation stories of the Native American Lenape and Iroquois people, the Earth is created as soil is piled on the back of a great sea turtle that continues to grow until it is carrying the entire world. Many indigenous tribes in North America refer to the continent as Turtle Island to this day. Another Native American creation myth that tells how the Earth was formed when mud was spread over the back of seven giant turtles whose occasional movements explain why earthquakes sometimes happen.
Over in China, part of the traditional creation mythology involves a giant turtle named Ao, although the image in this case is a bit different. According to the legend, the creator goddess cut off the legs of the cosmic turtle and used them to prop up the heavens, which had been damaged by another god. It’s not quite carrying the world on its back, but it still puts a terrapin at the center of the universe, making sure that the very sky doesn’t fall down.
Chinese mystics also attempted to connect the pattern of the shell and the constellations. The shell is said to depict a map of the stars, and most turtle shells have 13 sections that are associated with the 13 phases of the moon.
In ancient Egypt turtles were believed to have magical power to ward off evil and to defend health and life. In multiple cultures, turtle shells were tools of divination.
In Polynesia, intricate shell patterns were ciphers to chart the paths that spirits travel after death.
In Japan, turtles are regarded as symbols of prosperity and happiness.
Not a single negative depiction in history.
Let's move to today.
Here's one we encountered yesterday far from their lake that inspired me to write this post. Were they reaching out for help or hoping that I would notice and spread their story?
Even continuing to walk around the lake we saw a turtle that has been in this spot for decades. Or more likely saw us. Look at this knowing stare:
Turtles are a protected species. International trade in all sea turtle species and their parts is prohibited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a global agreement among governments to regulate or ban international trade in species under threat.
The whole world is in agreement on saving an animal species worshipped throughout time. No shell bombs, no tracking enemy submarines.
Does the government really think that the Earth is flat and is being protected by the turtles? And doing otherwise would cause extinction of our own race or world?
Possibly. Here is what has been published about turtles in our ecosystems.
Turtles have been around for 100 million years (humans only 200,000 years).
That's a lot of years to evolve into one of Earth's dominant protectors.
Sea turtles, especially green sea turtles, are one of the very few animals to eat sea grass. Like normal lawn grass, sea grass needs to be constantly cut short to be healthy and help it grow across the sea floor rather than just getting longer grass blades. If sea turtles go extinct, there would be a serious decline in sea grass beds and a decline in all the other species dependent upon the grass beds for survival. All parts of an ecosystem are important, if you lose one, the rest will eventually follow.
Beaches and dune systems do not get very many nutrients during the year, so very little vegetation grows on the dunes and no vegetation grows on the beach itself. This is because sand does not hold nutrients very well. Sea turtles use beaches and the lower dunes to nest and lay their eggs. Sea turtles lay around 100 eggs in a nest and lay between 3 and 7 nests during the summer nesting season. Along a 20 mile stretch of beach on the east coast of Florida sea turtles lay over 150,000 lbs of eggs in the sand. Not every nest will hatch, not every egg in a nest will hatch, and not all of the hatchlings in a nest will make it out of the nest. All the unhatched nests, eggs and trapped hatchlings are very good sources of nutrients for the dune vegetation, even the left over egg shells from hatched eggs provide some nutrients.
Dune vegetation is able to grow and become stronger with the presence of nutrients from turtle eggs. As the dune vegetation grows stronger and healthier, the health of the entire beach/dune ecosystem becomes better. Stronger vegetation and root systems helps to hold the sand in the dunes and helps protect the beach from erosion. As the number of turtles declines, fewer eggs are laid in the beaches, providing less nutrients. If sea turtles went extinct, dune vegetation would lose a major source of nutrients and would not be as healthy and would not be strong enough to maintain the dunes, resulting in increased erosion. Once again, all parts of an ecosystem are important, if you lose one, the rest will eventually follow.
Sea turtles are part of two ecosystems, the beach/dune system and the marine system. If sea turtles went extinct, both the marine and beach/dune ecosystems would be negatively affected. And since humans utilize the marine ecosystem as a natural resource for food and since humans utilize the beach/dune system for a wide variety of activities, a negative impact to these ecosystems would negatively affect humans.
Save the turtles, save the world?
It seems without turtles the ocean ecosystems would die. Then the beach ecosystem would perish leading to erosion. Which would then lead to a wasteland (without the help of Fallout style nukes) and humans would eventually follow suit.
If the turtles go extinct will the World Turtle just drop us off in the sun? Or just leave us stranded in space to find a better planet while we suffer our own fate?
The world governments must know something important about this or they wouldn't dedicate so much time and energy into protecting one species where they have happily experimented and used so many other animal species.
Is the Earth truly flat? Can we not see the turtle below the curvature of the earth? Does he hide behind it from our satellite views? What else does he protect us from? Are the smaller turtles on Earth his offspring sent to protect the world?
Turtles were around in the time of dinosaurs. And SURVIVED the dinosaur extinction. AND the ice age. And their existence determines if we survive?
I don't know who or what is behind it, but for all our sakes please protect the turtles.
Until next time dear theorists,
I am Snickers,
I am truth.
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