NATIONWIDE -- People around the world are celebrating World Turtle Day by not only recognizing the beauty of these land and ocean creatures, but by also raising awareness of how they're being exposed to dangerous conditions. 

As the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin once said, "We don't own the planet Earth. We belong to it, and we must share it with our wildlife."

Irwin’s daughter Bindi is advocating the same cause on World Turtle Day, posing with a turtle and posting to Twitter.

Now, it’s up to us to protect them for the generations to come. 

The purpose of World Turtle Day is to bring attention to and increase knowledge of and respect for turtles and tortoises.

It's purpose is to also encourage human action to help them survive and thrive, because right now, a lot of human action is killing them.

United Nations India says 50 percent of turtles in the world are thought to have eaten plastic or other forms of human rubbish.

So what can we do about it?

Experts say you should use less plastic and just say no to balloons, drinking straws and plastic bags -- turtles often mistake these for food in the water.  

But if you feel like doing more than just choosing paper over plastic, there are several hands-on ways to get involved in helping these gentle giants.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife website has tons of volunteer opportunities in counties all over Florida that directly work with turtles and cleaning up beaches.

Sea Turtle Space Coast has volunteer opportunities that let you train so you can help rescue turtles in trouble, conduct nest surveys, or just educate the public about these magnificent creatures.

You can find more volunteer opportunities here: