June Sea Gram

The June

Sea-gram

from MilaBooks.com

For ocean lovers, divers,

and "deep-thinkers."

"Welcome to World Sea Turtle Day!"

Paul Mila photo; Hawksbill Sea Turtle, Cozumel, Mexico ©

Welcome to the June 2022 Sea-gram, from MilaBooks.com

This month we're featuring sea turtles as we celebrate World Sea Turtle Day, June 16th. Lots of cool stuff to see in this issue.

In the Story About the Photo section we're announcing the winner of our sea turtle photo contest!

The winner gets to select the Harry Hawksbill Adventure book of his/her choice, as well as having their photo-story appear in this issue.

In the Book Corner, celebrate World Sea Turtle Day by ordering and entertaining and educational book for your special little sea turtle lover.

I hope you enjoy this Sea-gram, and share it with your friends and family.

Paul Mila

* * SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! * *

Before we visit the sea turtles, the SHARK ANGELS conservation organization is in the middle of their annual charity auction. It ends soon, on June 19th, so dive in now!

Click on the Shark Angels auction logo to find out how you can help save sharks, and also win some fabulous prizes!

* * * * * * * * *

START TEACHING THEM YOUNG!

Grandson Luke's kindergarten class was learning about sea turtles this week, so I read Harry Hawksbill Helps His Friends to his class, the first book in the Adventures of Harry Hawksbill trilogy. The children loved the story, asked great questions, and already knew many facts about ocean critters.

Threats Facing Sea Turtles

Sea turtles face many different threats today. Here are some major ones:

Beach Erosion

High tides coupled with strong storms destroy sea turtle nesting beaches, making it impossible for them to dig their nest and lay eggs because they cannot climb sand cliffs.

Sargassum Seaweed Pollution

Uncontrolled sargassum weed, a type of brown algae, is polluting beaches throughout the Caribbean. When the weed gets too thick, baby sea turtles like this one get stuck and die before reaching the ocean.

At about the half-way mark in this nest release (the 1:05 mark), one tiny turtle gets stuck in the sargassum weed. Will he make it to the ocean? Watch and find out.

Deadly sargassum weed can cover entire nesting beaches.

The likely culprit? Scientists attribute the explosion of sargassum weed to a mix of climate change, Amazon rainforest destruction, and dust blowing west from Africa's Sahara Desert.

Fishing Nets

This internet photo shows a dead sea turtle, trapped by a discarded fishing net.

Plastic Pollution

Another internet photo. Balloons and plastic bags look like one of turtles' favorite foods: jelly fish. They cannot digest plastic and will die after swallowing plastic bags and balloons.

Boat strikes

Sea turtles must surface to breathe, making them vulnerable to careless boaters. Luckily, this loggerhead survived.

Favorite & Unusual Sea Turtle Videos

I've been lucky to video many sea turtle encounters. Here are some interesting encounters.

Whacked by a Hawksbill!

If you're in the mafia and you misbehave, you can expect to get "whacked!" But diving? Getting "whacked" by this hawksbill as it passed me was like getting hit with a rubber hose!

Meeting Larry Loggerhead

Diving with Alison and Fulvio, we encountered an injured loggerhead. He survived, and became the star of Larry Loggerhead Travels to the Sea Turtle Hospital.

"Harry Hawksbill" lunching with French Angelfish

This video inspired the story, Harry Hawksbill Helps His Friends.

"Gracie Green Turtle" searching for a suitable place to nest?

Swimming along with this graceful green sea turtle was very enjoyable.

Sea Turtle Tango?

Watching these two hawksbills "dance" around each other was one of the most unusual turtle videos I ever shot.

A Turtle Back-scratch?

I could not tell what this hawksbill was doing until Alison held up her dive slate. This video include some still-photos. Watch until the end.

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The Story Behind the Photos

We had so many submissions for our sea turtle photo contest that the judges decided to break them into two categories: Up Close & Personal, and Wide-angle / Distance.

Andy Bachhuber was the winner in the Close & Personal category, with a great shot of a green sea turtle. Here is Andy's story behind his photo:

"I'd like to submit this photo of a green turtle resting on the reef taken in the Philippines.

The dive site was "Diver's Heaven" off of Balicasag Island in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines. It was a heavenly dive site! I counted 15 turtles that dive. The Philippines Siren Liveaboard was amazing! All the turtles I saw were on the top of the reef. Highly recommended!"

Thanks for sharing a great photo, Andy; Congratulations!.

Sarah Caron was the winner in the wide-angle/distance category. Here is Sarah's story behind her photo:

"Here’s our sea turtle pic from our honeymoon in October this year on the island of Kauai.

Two sea turtles came behind my husband and me while we were snorkeling in Haena when my husband grabbed this pic. We have tons of videos and pics but this one is by far my favorite— it looks so majestic!"