Two turtles from the Cayman Turtle Centre, one named in honour of the founder of Plastic Free Cayman, were released on Monday morning to mark Earth Day.
The turtles, called “watson” and Claire, were brought from the centre in West Bay to Governors Beach in water-filled tubs, before being deposited on the sandy beach to make their way into the Caribbean Sea.
Claire was named after Claire Hughes, who set up the anti-plastic advocacy group in 2017.
After ‘her’ turtle was released, Hughes told the Compass, “I’m honoured to have a turtle named after me, as the founder and leader of Plastic Free Cayman. It was great to see ‘Claire’ released into the wild and I’m really hoping she doesn’t encounter any plastics, because they’re a big issue at the moment.”
She urged everyone to do their bit to combat plastic pollution, by joining beach clean-ups and reducing their plastic use.
Clean-ups will be carried out throughout the islands this coming weekend. Plastic Free Cayman will hold one at Lovers Wall in East End from 8am, while thousands of volunteers are also expected to turn out for the Chamber of Commerce annual Earth Day clean-up.
Whitney Foster, marketing and events coordinator at the Cayman Turtle Centre, said there had been an “amazing” turnout for the Earth Day turtle release on Monday, which had also been held to help advocate for the end of single-use plastics in Cayman.
She added, “We couldn’t be happier to honour Claire from Plastic Free Cayman.”
A team from the turtle centre will be at Barkers Beach for the Chamber clean-up on Saturday.
Anyone turning up at the Cayman Turtle Centre on Saturday in a Chamber of Commerce Earth Day T-shirt – which the Chamber is giving away to clean-up volunteers – will receive a 10% entry discount to a special family fun day at the North West Point Road facility.
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