Malta has certainly come a long way with respect to environmental protection and conservation, but the amount of waste along coastal areas, particularly waste washed ashore after a storm, clearly shows that a lot more needs to be done with respect to waste that isn’t disposed of properly, both in coastal and non-coastal regions.

Waste is one of the biggest threats to marine animals, including sea turtles, which first started swimming about 164 million years ago during the time of the dinosaurs.

Now, six of the seven species of sea turtles are endangered. And while the regular turtle release events – including the one organised yesterday to coincide with World Turtle Day (23 May) – are a lovely sight, the future of these beautiful animals looks rather grim.

The most commonly known fact about turtles is that they mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, and as the Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles’ campaign material says with reference to jellyfish and plastic bags in the sea, “You see the difference. A turtle does not”. Plastic bags can cause suffocation or block these creatures’ digestive tract, meaning that they could end up starving to death.

And despite being great travellers, sea turtles are threatened by fishing fleets, among other factors. They regularly get entangled in fishing lines or get caught on hooks, and unless they are rescued by fishermen, boat owners or divers, they cannot possibly survive.

When they are rescued, they are often seen to by rescue volunteers forming part of environment NGO Nature Trust (Malta)’s Wildlife Rescue Team before being taken to the aquaculture centre at Fort San Luċjan in Marsaxlokk for rehabilitation. They often spend months at the centre before they are released back to the their natural homes.

This work – together with the support offered by companies such as Air Malta, which has been sponsoring the ‘Adopt a Turtle’ campaign in aid of Nature Trust’s turtle rehabilitation centre project – is highly commendable, but a bigger effort is undoubtedly required from civil society at large.

It isn’t enough for ministers to turn up at turtle release events, and to talk about the government’s commitment towards the environment. We all need to truly understand the consequences of over-development (light pollution and coastal development are also threats to sea turtles) and the lack of genuine respect for the environment.

Like the other turtle species, loggerhead turtles, which are the most commonly sighted turtles around the Maltese Islands, fulfil important roles in marine ecosystems. According to the World Wildlife Fund, they feed on many invertebrates and can change the seabed by ‘mining’ the sediments for their favourite prey. Moreover, as many as 100 species of animals and plants have been recorded living on one single loggerhead turtle.