Dead sea turtle inspires worldwide contest

Surfing Champion Carissa Moore and family are up to the challenge, are you?

by KEONI SUBIONO
Sun Correspondent
*Archived August 2006 article

Her dad Chris Moore taught her how to surf at the age of four and she's set new standards for competition ever since. "She was a natural," Chris said of his daughter, who picked up the sport pretty easily at such a young age. Keep in mind that all of the big boys like Andy Irons and Kalani Robb have competed in the NSSA but none of them have cleaned house with nine titles and time to spare.

Just recently Carissa won three divisions at the NSSA National Championship at Lower Trestles off San Clemente, California, the biggest competition of the year. So there is no doubt, no dispute, Carissa is a phenomenal competitor, but what you may not know is that Carissa is a simple girl with a heart of gold. She has a love for our beaches and a deeper love for her family.

It is with her family that she enjoys spending all of her time. A couple of weeks ago Carissa and her family spent some time at Malaekahana, a beach on the Northeast shore of our island. Chris explains: "Malaekahana is one of those beaches on the northeast corner that with the currents and winds and everything, all the debris comes back on to the beach. It's got a lot of debris and since the rains I don't think anyone has done anything to clean it up. So what happened was we went down there and the kids got out and started cleaning the beach. I didn't even have to ask them."

Carissa interrupts, "Well my sisters actually did it first." She elaborates more in her web journal entry: "...when we arrived, Cayla and Kelly went straight to the beach while the rest of us unpacked. When I went down to the beach, instead of finding them playing in the water, I saw them picking up trash. I was amazed that they thought of the idea without anyone telling them to do it. I joined in and we ended up picking up about three trash bags full of debris that littered the shore."

Chris finishes the story: "Well one of the things that happened was I went down to the beach on the last day that we were there. There was a lot of debris on the beach. It was one of those windier days; I was at one of those spots where the big ocean currents come in and bring in a lot of debris to the shore. I was the first one on the beach and I walked down about an eighth of a mile and there was a dead sea turtle. It died because there was plastic around its neck and it choked. It had it around its flipper and its neck and looked like the more it swam the tighter it got. And whether it was plastic from garbage or plastic from a drift net or something, regardless he died because of human negligence."

Carissa tells her side in her web journal entry: "For the next two days we spent part of our day picking up rubbish that washed up on the beach. On our last day, my dad woke us up and had us go down to the beach to see what he had found; he told us it was something that was probably going to make us cry. What we saw was one of the saddest things I had ever seen. It was a dead sea turtle on the sand. It was dead because a piece of plastic was wrapped around one of his flippers and neck.

The turtle choked to death because of a careless person who let his or her trash go into the ocean. I never thought I'd actually see something like this. It is a sad thing but it is all true. A sea turtle died today because of our trash. Don't you think we need to do something? My family and I want to pick up trash every time we go to the beach, even if it is only a few pieces. Every little bit counts; even a few pieces of trash can make a difference."

Carissa also exclaims, "I think it's really sad to see all the garbage on the beach and definitely seeing a dead sea turtle because of our trash and stuff and so I think if me and my family can do something to help other people maybe start picking up more trash instead of making more rubbish, maybe it would make a difference."

So out of a tragic experience springs a seed of hope. Carissa, her sisters Cayla, Kelly and Kailee, along with her parents are excited to help clean up not just our local beaches but other lakes, rivers, parks, and outdoor recreational areas around the world with "Carissa's Beach Clean-up Contest."

Carissa just posted the contest details on her website (carissamoore.com) in mid July and she has already gotten a ton of responses from all over the country. People from as far away as Minnesota are submitting entries. And who knows? By now it's probably gone global.

"It's very interesting, Carissa won't tell you but there is a rather large following that she has on her website, it's not just local or based in the U.S. it's a worldwide type of deal. She gets hundreds of different visits a day. Hits are way up there but individual people coming. It's a significant amount each day. So I figured let's give it shot (with the contest) and see if we can make a little bit of a difference," Chris stated of the contest.

The contest is simple, spend 20 minutes at your local beach or recreation area and pick up at least one bag of trash, take a digital photo of you and your garbage and send it in to Carissa at eroom@hawaii.rr.com. Also, send your name, the location you collected from and your state or country. You'd better send in your address too because there's a good chance that you'll win some great prizes. There will be additional prizes for most trash collected and a random drawing for the grand prize. The contest will run through the end of 2006. Weekly winners will be posted on the site. Stay tuned on Carissa's website for details, carissamoore.com.

"Just pick up some trash" is how Chris said it, and you know what? He's absolutely right!