How much plastic does it take to kill a sea turtle? | Smart News

Much attention has been paid to the way in which plastic ingestion impacts seabirds, fish and sea ​​turtles in recent years. It is logical to assume that naming plastic pieces is bad, but researchers were unsure of the amount of plastic or the plastic in some turtle stomachs was a direct cause of death. . Carla Howarth at the Australian Broadcasting Network reports that a new study on marine turtles attempted to understand this, finding that in some cases, nibbling a single piece of plastic could kill animals.

In a new study published in the journal Scientific reportsScientists examined data on the death of 1,000 sea turtles that had stranded on the shores of Australia, examining the amount of plastic debris found inside their stomachs, intestines and their bodies. rectum. According to one Press releaseResearchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia found that a turtle had a 22% chance of dying while ingesting a plastic object. Once a turtle gobbles 14 pieces of plastic, the death rate goes up to 50%. An animal that eats 200 pieces of plastic death is eminent, reports Matt McGrath at BBC.

Researchers estimate that 52% of marine turtles around the world have plastic in their bowels, but the plastic ingestion rates are different in the world. In Uruguay, for example, Howarth reports that 100% of sampled turtles had plastic in their intestinal tract.

Plastics decimated the youngest turtles, defined as post-hatching turtles that were just beginning to swim and young turtles the size of a plate or smaller. The researchers found that 54% of post-hatchling turtles and 23% of juvenile turtles had plastic inside, compared with 16% of adult turtles.

"Young small turtles drift and float with ocean currents, just like much of the light floating plastic," CSIRO principal author Britta Denise Hardesty told BBC. "We believe that small turtles are less selective than large adults who eat seagrass and shellfish, young turtles are in the ocean area off and older animals are feeding closer to the shore." .

The physiology of turtles also makes plastics deadly for them because animals can not regurgitate, which means that everything they eat is one way. Even a small piece of plastic trapped in the wrong place can cause a blockage leading to death.

Not everyone agrees with the conclusions of the study. Jennifer Lynch of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Hawaii also studied plastics in turtles, reports Karen Weintraub at The New York Times. But instead of looking at the turtles dead and stranded on the beach, she examined healthy animals that were accidentally caught by longline fishermen and drowned. In her study, she found animals containing over 300 pieces of plastic that were relatively healthy. "They ate a lot of plastic but it did not hurt them," said Dr. Lynch about the animals she examined. "They swallow it and they make it poo."

This does not mean that plastic does not hurt, but Lynch thinks there is still work to be done to understand the physiological effects of plastic. She also says that it is more useful to look at the weight of ingested plastic turtles instead of focusing on the number of pieces that can vary considerably.

At the next stage of their research, Howarth reports to ABC that the CSIRO team wishes to combine their recent data with other research on the prevalence of plastic ingestion to determine how much Turtles are killed each year by plastics.

Eating plastic is not the only problem that marine reptiles face. A study last year have also shown that fishing lines, discarded fishing gear, six-pack rings, ropes, ropes and other plastic debris can become entangled with turtles, resulting in drowning. The solution is of course to prevent the plastic from entering the ocean and cleaning what already exists. However, these two projects are easier said than done. at least one controversial project was recently launched to try to solve part of the problem.

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