An issue that is very important to me is the polluting of our oceans and the endangerment of marine life, namely sea turtles. Nearly every species of sea turtle is endangered or soon to be endangered. The phrase, “save the turtles,” is often met with eye rolls and huffs because many believe it’s trendy or insincere. But when you meet a sea turtle, especially one injured by pollution, you understand why the issue has gained so much attention in the last few years. I’ve seen sea turtles in the wild; on the beaches of Hawaii, they’re so beautiful and shy that they make you feel as though you’re closer to nature than you were ever supposed to be. They would come up to the beach at sunrise and sunset and lounge as long as you didn’t get too close, and suddenly I understood why ocean pollution is an issue that so many people care about. I’ve also had the opportunity to visit a sea turtle hospital in Florida, where I saw the effects of ocean pollution on these animals first hand. Every species of sea turtle is affected by ocean pollution. In fact all of marine life and their ecosystems are affected by pollution. These animals need our help, and there may be a solution. The obvious answer is to stop dumping trash into the ocean, but what can we do about the trash that’s already there? Mark Rober, former engineer for NASA and Apple, launched a campaign to clean the oceans with a 50 ton trash eating robot that he designed. In less than a year, with the help from over 600,000 donors to keep the machines running, Rober and his team were able to remove 30 million pounds of trash from the ocean. So the solution is trash eating robots, seems like the issue is taken care of, right? But trash is still being discarded into the ocean at an alarming rate. In plastics alone, 8.3 million tons are dumped into the ocean each year. It’s also estimated that close to 300,000 tons of plastic is floating on the ocean’s surface right now, and that doesn’t account for the countless amount of trash that has sunk to the bottom and into marine ecosystems. Mark Rober has proven that something can be done about the waste in the ocean as long as people care. We need to donate to campaigns like his and continue to bring awareness to the issue so that engineers and scientists like Rober can come up with more ingenuitive solutions like his trash eating robots. You can also always volunteer to pick up trash whenever you’re at the beach. The heartbreaking thing is, regardless of what beach you’re on, it’s likely that you’ll see enough litter to fill up a trash bag and then some. Whenever I’m picking up trash, on the beach or elsewhere, I’m thinking about those turtles I’ve met and that hopefully I’m protecting at least one of them. We only have one planet, and it’s important that we take care of the life that’s on it.