Ingestion of plastic marine litter by sea turtles in southern Brazil: abundance, characteristics and potential selectivity
Milena Rizzia,⁎, Fábio L. Rodriguesb, Luciana Medeirosa, Ileana Ortegaa, Lucas Rodriguesa,
Danielle S. Monteiroc, Felipe Kesslerd, Maíra C. Proiettia
Marine Pollution Bulletin
Hi guys!
This week, I want to share with you an article that I found about sea turtles and plastic ingestion. It's a little heavy-hitting, but it's important to talk about. As we all know, plastic pollution is becoming a major problem within our oceans and is taking its toll on the marine organisms living there. Turtles have taken the spotlight as a creature vulnerable to the plastic crisis, and are being monitored pretty consistently within the scientific realm. Six out of seven sea turtles are already classified as threatened or endangered, so plastic is the last thing they need.
This week, I want to share with you an article that I found about sea turtles and plastic ingestion. It's a little heavy-hitting, but it's important to talk about. As we all know, plastic pollution is becoming a major problem within our oceans and is taking its toll on the marine organisms living there. Turtles have taken the spotlight as a creature vulnerable to the plastic crisis, and are being monitored pretty consistently within the scientific realm. Six out of seven sea turtles are already classified as threatened or endangered, so plastic is the last thing they need.
This article examined the five species that live in the southwestern Atlantic and quantified the plastic marine litter (PML) found inside of them. 49 out of 86 individual turtles (or roughly 57%) had observed PML's in their system. Omnivorous turtles had more plastic in their body than carnivorous, due to their varied diet. They found that green sea turtles had the largest variety of plastics in their body, and had the highest ingestion rates. It was also noted that the type of plastics heavily ingested were transparent-white flexible plastics in green turtles but loggerheads preferred hard/foam black-brown fragments. This kind of insight will help fuel future research into turtle food preferences and turtle sight. Below, I've included a chart and graph that help you to better visualize the experimental procedure.
I think this article is important because it helps spread awareness regarding human actions and impact on the environment, and it also highlights how instinctual reptiles can be. These turtles aren't looking at the plastic pieces and processing that they aren't suitable food; they see it, they eat it. That demonstrated instinctual behavior gives a sneak peek into the reptilian brain and how it works. Continuing to spread awareness and modifying our actions will help to tackle some of the pollution that is finding its way into natural spaces. Thankfully, there are institutions that are working to mitigate the plastic problem and take in turtle patients that need extra help (I'm looking at you, Sea Turtle Rescue Center at South Carolina Aquarium!)
For a link to the full article, click below. Check it out!
2 comments:
Very interesting, particularly the potential resemblance between diet and ingested plastics. Did you see Michael's article review on plastic ingestion in sea turtles?
I read through his article review! I was curious to see if he had read anything about the different plastic types found in the loggerheads.
Post a Comment