| Dear NEVILLE,
I wasn’t going to email today because we’re so close to the Bonn World Heritage Committee Meeting – when the future protections for the Reef will be decided – and there’s so much going on. But then something beautiful landed in my inbox and I had to share it with you:
Check out this amazing footage of a turtle with a carefully-fitted camera on its back swimming through the Great Barrier Reef.
This little video really puts things in perspective. If the Committee votes to put Australia on probation and insist they protect the Reef, then turtles like this, currently endangered, will have a fighting chance.
A strong Committee decision could lead to the return of thriving coral, more turtles and dugongs, and better water quality in the Reef – because it will ensure the Government report back on progress and deliver on the promises that’ll fix the Reef.
For the sake of the turtles, let’s do this.
(Here’s that link again – how good is it!?)
Cheers
Richard Leck
Great Barrier Reef Campaigner
WWF-Australia
P.S. The background to this video is great: in order to find out more about the level of pollution affecting turtles within the Great Barrier Reef, WWF is working on an innovative project in Queensland with the support of our partners Banrock Station Wines Environmental Trust, James Cook University, University of Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, State and Commonwealth government agencies, Indigenous rangers and local community groups. As part of that project, the opportunity arose to very carefully fit a small GoPro camera to a turtle, to better understand the post-release behaviour of tagged green turtles. And the result is this amazing video. It’s so good that they aired it on the Today Show on Channel 9 this morning! |
