Kaila Turley and Waian Turley - Teen Ocean Activists

Teen Ocean Activists – Teens Protecting Our Oceans

Teens Protecting the Ocean

Kaila Turley and Waian Turley are teen ocean activists. They are literally, teens protecting our oceans.  Teen ocean activists founded The Original Surfers. They grew up in the ocean in San Diego, California surfing and swimming with dolphins.  Teen ocean activists saw dolphins surfing the waves and they knew that dolphins were truly, The Original Surfers.

Kaila Turley and Waian Turley - Teens Protecting the Ocean
Kaila Turley and Waian Turley – Teen Ocean Activists

The Original Surfers is a movement for teens to help protect the beach and the ocean.  The idea is to encourage teens to love the beach, ocean, and dolphins so they will stand up to protect them.  “We’re teen ocean activists,” explains Kaila Turley. “We have three main causes. First, stopping sewage pollution at our beaches and ocean. Second, to stop plastic pollution in the ocean. Third, to stop climate change because it’s destroying the ocean ecosystems.”

Teen Ocean Activists – Stopping sewage from being dumped into the ocean

As Waian Turley tells it, “Teens protecting our oceans is so important because problems such as sewage being dumped into our local beaches are not being addressed by hardly anyone.  There was a recent sewage study by San Diego State University that found that the biggest problem with sewage in our local oceans is not due to rain or the border sewage problem, but rather due to aging and leaky sewage pipes.”

Sewage in the Ocean - Teens Protection our oceans
Sewage in the Ocean *

Waian continues, “Where we grew up and still hang out at the beach, there is a permanent sign posted on the beach on the bluff, warning of sewage flowing into the ocean. This is where we hang out, swim and surf.”  “The dolphins swim right by here every day. They can’t make the choice not to swim. This is where the dolphins live.”

* By the way. This photo of sewage in the ocean in San Diego was taken more than a month after the last time it rained. Supporting the SDSU study that found the biggest cause of sewage being dumped into the ocean is old and leaky sewage pipes.

Teens protecting our oceans from climate change

Climate change is destroying ocean ecosystems in every ocean in the world.

There are three main ways that climate change is causing serious damage to our oceans: temperature increase, sea level rise, and acidification.  Oceans are becoming more acidic as they absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere.

Dying Coral Reefs Due to Climate Change - Teen Ocean Activism
Dying Coral Reefs Due to Climate Change 

The harm to coral reefs is by all three of these.  Marine life is being killed due to these harmful changes.

Kaila and Waian are helping to spread the word to teens about the way climate change is harming our oceans.  “Without teens protecting our oceans, we are afraid for our ocean’s future,” Kaila says.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has lost more than half of its corals since 1995 due to warmer seas driven by climate change, a study has found. There has been mass bleaching of the reefs.  This is all due to greenhouse gas emissions. This bleaching happens when corals under stress drive out the algae – known as zooxanthellae – that give them color. Climate change is the biggest threat to reefs’ long-term survival.

Plastic pollution is Waian’s Teen Ocean Activist Challenge

Waian has made plastic pollution her own challenge. “It starts with cleaning up our rivers. 90% or plastic pollution in the ocean comes from three rivers. We have to do everything we can to stop these rivers from harming our oceans,” Waian declares.

Yangtze River Plastic Trash
Yangtze River Plastic Trash

Two separate studies concluded that 90% of the plastic from rivers comes from the world’s three largest rivers: Nile, Amazon, and Yangtze.

You might have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  The Ocean Cleanup is trying to clean up all this garbage in our ocean.

What is a teen ocean activist?

We all know what a teen is – someone that is between 13 and 19 years old.  And the ocean is pretty obvious.  We hang out, swim and surf in the Pacific Ocean.

Activist

A person who uses or supports strong actions (such as public protests) in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Activism
Activism (or advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct, or intervene in social, political, economic, or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good.
Not to get all Bob Marley on you – but – get up, stand up, stand up for your rights. Only here, it’s not your rights, it’s the ocean’s rights that we’re standing up for.
And it’s environmental reform.
It’s thinking about something or believing in something that is more important and bigger than you are. Not to suggest you’re not important. But, our ocean, beaches, marine animals, and climate change – – can you see how these are all so important?
Kalia and Waian are devoted to being teen ocean activists. They are devoted to teens protecting the ocean.  They realize that change has to come from non-governmental organizations such as The Original Surfers and individuals to bring change to marine conservation.
Teens Protecting the Ocean - Kaila Turley
Teen Ocean Activist – Kaila Turley

Treated Sewage is a problem too!

Did you know that it’s not just untreated sewage that’s a big problem with the ocean?  There are 23 million people living in So Cal, that all have their sewage flushed into the ocean every day.  The treated sewage gets sent out to sea (read: the ocean) in large outfall pipes.
This isn’t news, right? The problem is that the treated sewage has high levels of nitrogen that cause harmful algae blooms, which gets fish toxified. Dolphins and sea lions, then eat the fish and they die.  Hence, all the dolphins and sea lions die every day in California.
Heck, they say this is a Central California problem. But I was surfing today and there was a lot of green algae floating in the water.  Dang!!!!

If not us, then who?

Kaila and Waian both ask, if we don’t stand up to be teen ocean activists, if we don’t stand up as teens protecting our ocean, then who will?

We invite you to join us at The Original Surfers to be teen ocean activist!

We hope you will join us, to help protect the ocean. To be teen ocean activists.  To be teens protecting our oceans.
Waian Turley- Teen Ocean Activism -Teens Protecting Our Oceans
Waian Turley- Teen Ocean Activism “If not us, then who?”

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