I never imagined that this inquiry about turtle care to the Sea Turtle Restoration Project would trigger the kind of response it did…
Dear Turtle Restorers:
Can you please share some expert advice regarding turtle restoration? There’s a product called Turtle Wax, which claims to clean, shine and protect car finishes. Could it also be safely used to clean, shine and protect the shell of a real turtle to restore its shiny finish?
Suppose I had two turtles named Sal and Monella. If I rubbed them down with Turtle Wax, could I get them to shine brighter than the blinding high-beams of a Porsche coming straight at you in the evening after having your eyes dilated by an Optometrist?
I’d never do anything to harm a turtle, so your answer, which is not only a reflection on you, but possibly on the turtles, will be the final word. Please don’t tell me to write the manufacturers of Turtle Wax since I already did, and they either weren’t willing to stick their necks out or didn’t know, because they didn’t write back.
Do you think a freshly turtle waxed shell might get so shiny that a person could actually see themselves in it? How cool would it be to carry around a turtle, which doubled as a mirror? Many tiles are shiny, why not reptiles? Can this be accomplished with the utmost in turtle safety or do you consider it a violation of the reptile rules of the sea?
Very turtlely yours,
“Me”
The Sea Turtle Restoration Project Membership Manager responded with:
Thank you for taking the time to write to us. As you know, sea turtles need all the help they can get right now, so we appreciate that you’re thinking “outside the (burn) box.”
We will certainly take your thoughts on turtle restoration under consideration. Once we’ve cleaned all the oil and sludge off of them, I’m sure they could benefit from a nice coat of shiny wax. Perhaps that will protect them from their next encounter with a gushing geyser of oil from the bottom of the ocean. I wonder why this never occurred to us before?
Perhaps Tony Hayward of BP and the other oil company executives could use some polishing as well. They seem to have lost their luster.
For the turtles,
“Them”
Final Thoughts: I’m really glad Turtle Wax shined me off. Otherwise, I would have never received this touching and enlightening response. While others may also dream of pet turtles with shinier shells, there’s a bigger issue at hand: Oil’s not well in the sea turtle world!
The (burn) box reference in the reply referred to BP using boats and creating a corral of the oil by dragging together fire-resistant booms. The enclosed “Burn Box” was then set on fire, and in the process, the turtles were cruelly burned alive. You can learn more by reading, “Rescue ALL Sea Turtles from Burning Oil.” Then, catch this update resulting from legal action taken to protect sea turtles from incineration, “BP and Coast Guard Halt Burning of Endangered Sea Turtles in Gulf Oil Spill Clean Up.” One look at the photo of the sea turtle recovered from the spill sadly shows how this is far from one of our most shining moments.
Bravo to the Membership Manager for putting this issue into perspective so slickly! It moved me to look into the work of STRP and support their efforts with a donation. While they are protecting and restoring the populations of endangered sea turtles, who’s going to restore our faith in those charged with handling disasters like this for our population? Here’s where you can learn more about the Sea Turtle Restoration Project.
As a consumer, sometimes a simple product inquiry can open your eyes to an important sign or shine of the times. So when a manufacturer (Hello, Turtle Wax!), corporation (Paging BP!) or government (That’s US!) either refuses to come out of its shell, moves slower than a turtle, and/or doesn’t provide (or have) all the answers required to effectively solve a problem, try contacting an organization that cares because you don’t always get satisfaction when you Write The Company.
