STAFF from a Guatemalan charity improving the plight of turtles have inspired children at Okehampton Primary into making some unique artwork.

Sarah Lucas and Ever Rizo from the charity Akazul visited the school's Year 4 pupils recently to discuss their conservation work with turtles in La Barrona, a small Guatemalan village six kilometres west of the El Salvador border.

A fishing village with approximately 900 inhabitants, La Barrona has a primary school with 60 pupils that attend school for around four hours a day, spending the rest of the time helping their families to fish, collect wood for fires and prepare meals.

The legal collection and sale of Olive Ridley turtle eggs during the nesting season provides many families with a small income, and Akazul is now working with these families to try and find alternative sustainable work for farmers, and to educate the village about turtle conservation.

Pupils learned how plastic marine pollution causes specific problems for turtles, as many species try to eat discarded carrier bags, mistaking them for jellyfish. The plastic bags then get stuck in the downward facing spines in the turtle's throat, often causing suffocation.

The children are hoping to encourage Okehampton residents to use less plastic bags when they go shopping.

Children, families and other community members have been working on a number of artistic projects using plastic bags in an effort to raise the profile of plastic waste around the town.