"Yuck! This is so dirty!" My brother pulled back, scrunching his face in disgust. I silently agreed. My family and I had come to the beach to rest and relax for a day. However, this beach was so filthy! As soon as we stepped onto the shore, a wave of murky, shredded rubbish greeted us. The other beachgoers did not seem to notice that they were surrounded by trash. On the contrary, one even collected all his food scraps and rubbish, and then tossed them all into an existing pile of trash. His actions were horrible! Not only did he not help to clear the trash, he even contributed to it! I stood there pensively, wondering how people could treat the beach this way.
Shaking our heads, we found an empty spot in the sand free from rubbish and sat down. As our parents unpacked our snacks, my brother and I wanted to play on the beach. The problem was, there was almost no space to play. Most of the beach was blanketed in styrofoam boxes, plastic bottles, aluminium cans, and food scraps. It was as if someone had taken a hundred rubbish bins and dumped its contents onto this beach. I gritted my teeth in frustration at the inconsiderate behaviour of the beachgoers. In the end, we managed to find a small, cramped corner on the beach to play.
As we started building sandcastles, I caught a glimpse of something far away, moving behind a heap of plastic. I blinked. "A flipper? Why is it moving?" I thought. Curious, I wandered over to that spot with my parents and brother in tow. When we got closer, we saw a creature hiding behind an enormous pile of trash. it stared at us with large black eyes like glistening pearls and croaked feebly. It was a sea turtle! The majestic, endangered creature was a rare sight even at night, when it was the most active, much less in this sweltering heat. On closer look, however, the sea turtle seemed to be whimpering in pain. Squatting in front of the creature, I saw something sticking out of its nose. Could it be…? It was! A plastic straw was stuck up its nostril and suffocating the poor animal. My heart went out to the innocent, vulnerable sea turtle as it was helpless. My brother grabbed his hair and yelled, "this is an environmental disaster!"
Determined to help the sea turtle, my mother whipped out her mobile and dialled the environmental agency helpline. A short while later, their staff arrived with a box of tools. Some of them held the turtle down with gloved hands, while others used a pair of pliers to meticulously extract the straw from the turtle's nostril. Slowly but surely, the straw was pulled out, gradually clearing the airways of the turtle. The sea turtle was finally spared from its ordeal at last. The entire straw, though sticky and covered in rivulets of dark red blood, was finally out of its nose. Now safe, the sea turtle blinked its iridescent eyes at us, as if thanking us for saving it. It then swam back into the sea and eventually faded into the distance.
Turning our attention to the beach, we put on some gloves and proceeded to pick up the pieces of plastic and trash that were harming all the poor organisms in nature. Seeing my family hard at work to beautify the beach again, some beachgoers also joined in and picked up the rubbish in their vicinity too. The filthy beach was finally getting a much-needed makeover! A wide grin spread across our faces as we watched the black garbage bags fill up one by one. Who would expect that a small effort on our part could Inspire so many others to do the same?
Although we only saved that one sea turtle that day, we made a big difference to this beach and to the hearts of several beachgoers. I felt a surge of pride and joy knowing that I had contributed to the cleaning up of the beach. At the same time, I also felt appalled by the actions of stone-hearted humans who destroyed the lives and habitats of animals. Clenching my fists in determination, I made a solemn promise to myself to care more for the environment in the future.
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