for convenience, i have also included the script of the poem below:

a tale of two shells by terrius harris

a place so foreign to the naked eye that travelers would call it fake; unbelievable, indescribable, but in fact, it’s just a projection of what things used to be like before mankind’s ways. 
a place untouched, now uncovered to you in a blink of an eye, this is only a glimpse of the magic that lives here on this island of life. 
an island of endemic creatures, ones not seen anywhere else before, yet two rise above the rest as through their ancient eyes, we can see the trials and tribulations that mother nature has bore. 

beginning on land we stare into your eyes, with wrinkles on your face and the scratches on your shell telling no lies.
it is you who walked among the dinosaurs in ancient times, head held tall; surviving centuries of natural disasters, and humankind, the largest threat to the environment of them all. 
we stare upon your long neck waiting for you to speak, to tell us the answer to our problems, to help us reconciliate our self-created unfortunate destiny. 
looking in your land, untouched you roam, and as we gaze upon your beauty we can find answers previously unknown. 

the giant galapagos tortoise, a species almost extinct, but with the careful planning, and intentionality of mankind, you still walk among me. 
it is here we find our lesson, it is here we find our truth, as your very existence is the answer to maintaining mankind’s historical youth. 
for you represent the environment, the land, the trees, even the air we breathe; and just as we saved you, we must act swiftly with intention to save the planet, our home to forever be. 
you teach us that leaving is not the answer, nor hoping that everything will work out is the plan, instead, you represent the work, the dedication, and the unwavering effort that must be put in by every (wo)man.

leaving the land, and diving into the sea, we find our second guardian, underneath the waves, swimming gracefully. 
as you swim away from us, seemingly set on your own journey, with a closer look we find our second lesson for learning. within a few strokes distance, yet so much space in-between, it is hard to gather a closer look at what you’re trying to show me. 
chasing you in the ocean, a place that makes up more than 70% of our home, as i get closer i notice something in your movements as you swim, it is not your strong set path that you follow as you roam. 
instead, looking closer, i can see the expression on your face; one of peace and acceptance, content, as you are one with this place. 
a lesson not easily learned, as mankind believes things can all be owned, but instead the wisdom that you bestow upon us is that we are all part of something greater and many times unknown. 
for you have withstood the unwavering turning tides of time, a lesson that mankind must learn in order to survive. 
your lesson is clear as the water you swim through, and it all begins with acceptance from all of us, me and you. 
acceptance that we are only a small part of the plethora of mother earth, and a small dot in the record of time since the universal birth. 
with this said we should let the earth guide us as it pushes us towards reconciliation, with warnings like increased tornadoes, hurricanes, drought, and rising tidal basins.
just as you swim and let the tide guide you, we too should learn, to make note of mother nature’s warnings if our future is what we want to earn. 
the galapagos sea turtle, a species so unique, though others are in existence, i am forever grateful for the lessons that you’ve taught me.

divided by the land, buried beneath the sea, yet forever connected within the same destiny. 
creatures unlike any others, in a place never believed to be real, what we should learn is that all we have to do is take note from what we have seen here. 
protect our oceans, protect our lands for this is the only one we can withstand. 
this is the charge we’ve been given, this is the only lesson we need to learn, for it was said long ago when mankind thought the world was flat, that we were simply sailing through the universe on a turtles back. 
a tale of two shells, one dry, one wet, but both representing the yin and yang of our mother earth as we pledge to restore her to the magnificence that the galapagos has left.

humans have acquired the power to significantly alter the changing world around us. we have contaminated the world’s oceans, streams, air, and forests, resulting in a loss of biodiversity globally. we have gained the power to halt the earth’s history of interaction between the living and the nonliving. becoming subject to our growing industrialization and colonization, in turn, decimating the natural environment as we know it. as albert schweitzer once put it, “man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.” we have forgotten what it means to be stewards of the earth. we have been disconnected from nature in a society deeply embedded in technology and materialism, in a society focused on affluence and greed. 

the coyotes that ravage the land, the bighorn sheep that scale the barren cliffs, the moose and buffalo that roam the planes, these creatures forged our paths as one. these animals were the real pioneers of north america. the world was here before us, and it will be here after us. this means that we have an obligation to protect what is integral for sustaining a stable and even prosperous environment. 

the creation of the national park system represents that silver of clarity and hope in preserving our nation’s wildlife. however, u.s national parks do not account for the rest of the world. in order to stimulate change, we must take the issue into our own hands. we can apply little changes in our individual lives such as recycling, avoiding the use of plastic, and cutting down on the use of water. we can also get involved in a local or state level to protect our oceans and our land. once smaller victories have been won, as a society, we can then branch out and tackle larger issues that only the government will be able to solve. 

virginia burns perez, the technical coordinator for the wildlife conservation’s sea turtle program in middle caye, belize explained several possibilities for the hawksbills thriving at glover’s. she highlighted laws protecting sea turtles from fishing, as well as their evolved strong  jaws which allow them to consume the barrel sponges along the glover’s atoll.

the wildlife conservation society operates the glover’s reef research station on middle cay. it opened in 1997 to promote and facilitate long-term conservation and management of the wider belize barrier reef complex. the wsc worked with the belize fisheries department along with other local stakeholders to create a conservation plan for the glover’s reef site. the hawksbill sea turtle was one of the target species for conservation. a field study featuring research conducted between 2007 and 2013 showed that more than 1,000 juvenile hawksbill sea turtles currently thrive at glover’s reef in atoll, belize.

according to zach flotz, the ccre station manager and dive master for the caribbean coral reef ecosystems program at the smithsonian marine station in belize, described how the best way for anyone to help the turtles involves “staying out of their way,” and that “the best way we can help them is by not affecting them at all.” at the smithsonian site, foltz and his crew have kept track of where the turtles nest and how they nest in order to maneuver around them.