Extinction Sucks gives sea turtles a break

WWF 1 May 09;

In the latest episode of Extinction Sucks, stars Ashleigh Young and Aleisha Caruso decide to organise a tennis tournament to raise funds for the protection of sea turtles in northern Queensland. They hope to raise enough money to buy a quad bike for the conservation teams who clear nets and rubbish from the remote beaches of Cape York, a major turtle nesting ground.

Though Sea Turtles are truly one of nature’s great survivors, having existed for more than a hundred million years, humans pose an increasing threat to their existence.

Plastic thrown into the oceans is often eaten by turtles, wrecking their digestive system. Also, they get caught up in stray fishing nets, leading to a slow and painful death. In addition, feral pigs eat up their buried eggs, further reducing their chances of survival.

But in this week’s episode, Aleisha and Ashleigh refuse to see these creatures simply be wiped out. By organising the tennis fundraising event, they hope to prevent just that.

Extinction Sucks is a unique co-production between WWF and Babelgum to bring high-quality conservation programming to web audiences. It's thought to be the first time that an online video channel has commissioned original, full-length wildlife shows specifically for the internet. The series is being broadcast over a six week run on www.panda.org and www.babelgum.com. Other programmes see Ash and Aleisha raise funds for WWF programmes protecting elephants in India and rhinos in Nepal threatened by poachers, and Asiatic black bears in Vietnam.