Plastics found in turtles’ guts

A JAMES Cook University study has discovered microplastics in the gut of sea turtles across the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, including off Queensland’s coast.

Of the 102 turtles studied, every turtle had up to 20 pieces of microplastics in just a portion of its gut.

The most common microplastics found were fibres, potentially from clothing, tyres, cigarette filters and maritime equipment such as ropes and fishing nets.

Queensland turtles were also found to have microbeads in their gut, believed to be the first isolation of microbeads from a sea turtle.