Turtle Killers

These are some postcards that Saramen Chuuk Academy received from a middle school in Maryland that we have no previous connections to:

"Don’t kill the whales. The whales have feelings you know. Whales already have a low population and now people are killing them for coats and meat. We have enough food and warmth. Don’t kill whales!" (With a picture of a whale being killed drawn in crayon)
"Dear Saramen Chuuk Academy, Try to make a difference! Sea turtles are an endangered species. They have to be 20 years old to lay their eggs. Most sea turtles do not survive that long because of humans and natural predators. Take a stand!" (With a picture of a turtle drawn in crayon)
"Caption: Stop killing whales. They are endangered and if they disappear it could mess up the ecosystem." (With a picture of a dead whale drawn in crayon)

So, when our school got these we were confused. The Micronesians were offended that these Americans were being so judgmental about their culture and making assumptions about what they know or do not know about marine life. I could imagine what the teacher and students were thinking, but they had no idea how condescending and insensitive the post cards were. The ironic part of it all is that they are spending energy telling Micronesian kids to stop killing turtles and whales when they are from the country that is leading the world in contributing to global warming, which is sinking the Micronesian islands. This is the response that my students came up with after researching and discussing the issue in class:

The students of Saramen Chuuk Academy would like to thank you for caring about endangered species. We were surprised to get your post cards, and we would like to explain how we understand marine life here in Weno, Chuuk, FSM. Before we write about whales and turtles we would like to introduce ourselves. We live on islands formed by a volcano that makes up the main Chuuk lagoon. Most of the students in our class are Chuukese and speak English as a second language.
To be honest, when we read the postcards about whales we were confused because no one in our class has ever seen a whale. The lagoon is protected by a reef and whales normally stay out in the open ocean. You did inspire us to learn about whales and why they are endangered, as well as our connection to this issue. We learned that, "whales produce great quantities of oil, meat, and blubber that are converted into many products" (Lee, 1991). This seems to be a problem because, "some species were nearly hunted to extinction in the last 100 year" (Lee, 1991). We know that Micronesians are not hunting whales or profiting from whaling. It was interesting to know that, "The companies doing the most whaling are from Japan; Maruha group and Kyodo Senpaku" (Environmental Investigation Agency). According to our laws in the Compact of Free Association, "...the FSM agrees to the following mutual and reciprocal undertakings...taking into account the particular environments of Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the FSM: the Endangered Species Act of 1973" (Compact of Free Association, Title !, Article VI, 1982). The quote from our laws tells us that killing endangered whales in the FSM waters is illegal. As students we can write our FSM government which ask for help to stop the killing of endangered species.
Unlike whales, we are very familiar with turtles. Turtles are a part of our culture. On special occasions we will eat turtle and we also use it for handicrafts, wasting a very small part of the turtle. Since turtles are so important to us, most people are careful in the way they hunt them. People almost never kill smaller (younger) turtles. Also, people wait for turtles to lay eggs, go our into the ocean, and come back to the shore before hunting them. A practice that still exists in some islands involves presenting any turtles caught to the chief. The chief can then know how many turtles are being killed and the turtle is shared with the village. We understand that it is important to be careful in the way we kill turtles. As students, we can ask people we know who hunt turtles to bring awareness to the issue an make sure that we are allowing turtles to survive asa species. We read that, " In the Pacific, the NOAA has a center in Hawaii which is working to save sea turtles in Pacific Islands like ours, Chuuk" (NOAA National Fisheries Office of Protected Resources, 2008). It is good to know that there are groups here protecting endangered species. We think turtles are very beautiful and we hope that you get to see them in the U.S. We were sad to discover that , "turtles that are endangered in U.S. waters are; Green turtle, Hawsbill turtle, Kamps Ridley turtle, Leather Back turtle, Loggerhead turtle, Olive Ridley turtle" (NOAA National Fisheries Office of Protected Resources, 2008).
We hope that there are environmental issues that you help with in the U.S. Balancing culture with the future of our planet is important work. Asking us to not eat turtle is like us asking you to not ever eat fast food. Maybe it is good if we all cut down on our turtle and Big Mac consumption, but not eliminate it. The fast food industry contributes to many environmental problems, including global warming. Many of our islands will disappear (sink) in our life time because of global warming. So, we hope that you continue to study these different issues, and if you have time also learn a little about Micronesia.

After this project I decided to show the students "An Inconvenient Truth" so that they could learn more about global warming. The students were so inspired by the movie that they had the idea to invite Al Gore to come to Chuuk and do his presentation. These are some of the letters they wrote, which will be edited before we mail them to this Al Gore guy.

Dear Al Gore,
Hello! I am Emyrose Aizawa, I am from Chuuk Micronesia. I am in a high school named Saramen Chuuk Academy. I’m not that smart, but I’ve tried my best in this school, so I’m going to be a senior next year.
My classmates and I watched the movie, "An Inconvenient Truth". You wre presenting your project about global warming, so I would like to kindly ask you to please come to Chuuk and do what you did in the movie, so that these Chuukese will understand about global warming and change their living.
These Chuukese are also the ones that causes global warming. They’ve been threw trashes around, burned a lot of plastics, and do such bad things. So, please I’m begging you again, come to Chuuk, and do some changes.

Dear Al Gore,
It’s would be a good pleasure for us to have you here in Chuuk to tell a speech about global warming. It is really true that you have been traveling from place to place to give out what you are having in your mind in order to save our world. Maybe it is good for you to come and tells us about the global warming, cause most of our islands here in the Pacific are flat and thin, and in our islands now adays people are using things that are bad for our environment and so it will be better if you come and tell us something about global warming so that we can stop using things that cause global warming.
Fortunately, the students understand that Al can’t be the only one to advocate and act to stop global warming. They have identified what they can do to cut down on pollution and CO2 emissions. These are students who speak English as a second language, have never seen the world outside of the islands, and have very limited resources. If they can see the importance of stopping global warming I hope we can all join them in their efforts.