Plastic found in 54% of dead baby turtles
PLASTIC is killing endangered sea turtles, with more than half of their babies found to have it in their stomachs.
Up to 329 pieces of plastic have been found in a single sea turtle, weighing 10.41 grams.
Scientists examined 246 turtles stranded in Queensland, Australia, which were dead or died subsequently, and found 54% of the hatchlings had swallowed plastic, along with almost a quarter of juveniles.
Two animals died after ingesting only one piece of plastic.
Turtles are drawn to fragments of plastic bags because they look like jellyfish and crustaceans, which they eat, and they will try to find it when food is scarce.
Unlike seabirds, they cannot regurgitate the material and it can block their guts, causing them to die of starvation.
The Irish Daily Mail has campaigned against plastic in our oceans, which is also killing whales and fish, raising fears it could get into the food chain.
Dr Denise Hardesty, who led the study from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia, said: ‘This research points to the ubiquity of plastic in the environment and how it impacts on animals which are already extremely threatened and endangered.
‘The plastic we are putting into the ocean is only making that threat worse and, hopefully, these findings are a wake-up call.’
Young sea turtles, including loggerheads and hawksbills, tend to feed close to the surface so they are at high risk from the millions of tonnes of plastic which enter the oceans each year.
Scientists searched the stomachs of the turtles and concluded that swallowing just one piece of plastic gives them a one in five chance of dying. Plastic was found in almost one in four turtles, including 13 out of 24 baby turtles, 23% of juveniles and 16% of adults.
The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, concludes that swallowing just 14 pieces of plastic gives a turtle a 50/50 chance of dying, while 226 pieces will definitely kill them.
Emma Priestland, plastic pollution campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: ‘Thousands of tonnes of plastic pollution pour into our waterways each year and can end up in the stomachs of even the smallest creatures in our seas.
‘It’s time to end the scourge of plastic pollution and this is why we’re campaigning for a government action plan to stop companies using non-essential plastic.’