Unnatural world ... seahorse clings to a cotton bud

IT is a poignant image of how the plastic we dump in the ocean confuses and endangers marine life.

This seahorse tugging a cotton bud through the depths follows images of turtles tangled in carrier bags and puffins with plastic in their beaks.

It is a finalist in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition going on display in London’s Natural History Museum next month to show the ‘wonder and fragility of the natural world’. Cotton buds are a threat, with the Marine Conservation Society finding 13,500 on one beach.