According to an Australian study, even a single piece of plastic is enough to increase the chances of dying from a sea turtle by eating it.

Researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization have analyzed nearly 1,000 sea turtles found dead and stranded on beaches in Australia.

The researchers found that the more sea turtles ingest, the more likely the plastic is to kill the creature.

"Some of the turtles we studied had only eaten a piece of plastic, which was enough to kill him," said Kathy Townsend, Lecturer in Animal Ecology at the Australian University of the Sunshine Coast, in a statement. a statement. "In one case, the intestine was punctured and in the other, the soft plastic clogged the intestines."

The results also showed that once a sea turtle consumed at least 14 pieces of plastic, the probability that the plastic caused the turtle's death increased by 50%.

"We knew that turtles used a lot of plastic, but we did not know for sure if this plastic actually caused turtle deaths, or if turtles had plastic at death," said Chris Wilcox, Principal Investigator at CSIRO. in a statement.

Their search was published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

The researchers said that about 52% of marine turtles in the world have ingested plastic and hope that this study will shed some light on how plastic pollution affects sea turtles.

"Millions of tonnes of plastic debris enter the world's oceans each year," said Wilcox.

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @ brettmolina23.

Read or share this story: https://usat.ly/2NgQPNm