Only one small piece of plastic can kill a small turtle

Jordi Chias / Naturepl.com

By Andy Coghlan

Combine the lack of experience, making plastic for food or swimming where most plastic waste accumulates. Whatever the reasons, new evidence shows that young turtles off the Australian coast of Queensland are at greater risk than their elders of swallowing plastic waste.

Further autopsies on 246 dead sea turtles on the beaches of Queensland showed that 58 had ingested between one and 329 pieces of plastic, which could have contributed to their deaths. The rest died from other causes, such as collisions with boats. But of the 58 plastic consumers, only four were full or close adults. Most – 41 – were minors. The very young "post-turtles" seemed particularly endangered: of the 246 dead sea turtles, 24 were post-young and 13 of them had consumed plastic.

One explanation is that young turtles swim closer to the surface in offshore waters where plastics float and drift with dominant, plastic-rich currents.

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"They may be less selective than adults and have higher concentrations of debris," says Britta Denise Hardesty of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Hobart, Australia. investigation. "Plastics, especially balloons, can look like jellyfish and squid, as well as crustaceans and sponges," she says.

Using autopsy data, the team determined how the risk of turtle death increased as the plastic load of the intestine increased. For example, half of the young turtles of about 45 centimeters would die if they swallowed 17 plastic objects. Even swallowing a single piece of plastic increased the risk of death by 22%, said the team, with the risk of killing because of a blockage of the intestine or perforation.

"Turtles can live 80 years or more, but if they eat something that blocks their intestines, even a single piece of plastic, it can be deadly," says Hardesty. She hopes the results will discourage imprudent waste disposal, adding that plastics have been found in hundreds of marine species, including fish consumed by humans.

Journal reference: Scientific reports, DOI: 10.1038 / s41598-018-30038-z