The colourful mosaic in the picture represents the plastic waste that was found in the digestive tract of a sea turtle. The animal was found dead washed ashore a beach on the coast of Argentina.
The green sea turtle, whose armor grows to be 4.5 feet long and who weighs up to 1100 pounds, eats mainly plants such as sea grass and algae. Unfortunately, too often his “menu” includes plastic objects thrown out by people. Particularly dangerous are plastic bags which the turtle mistakes for jellyfish (one of their specialties.) A reusable plastic bag can block the animal’s digestive tract and ultimately doom it to a slow and agonizing death by starvation.
The results of a new study that appeared in the Marine Turtle Newsletter show that 75 percent of green turtles tested had eaten food products that contained plastic. One of them had swallowed four different types of balloons, a piece of material similar to carpet, and two balls of tar.
Colette Wabnitz of the University of British Columbia and Wallace Nichold the California Academy of Sciences who oversaw the study have stated that the bodies of almost all marine species – including even the most isolated species that live, seemingly, far away from the influence of people – have shown evidence of plastic in their digestive tracts.
Animals have incorporated plastic not only into their diets but into their habitats in general. It’s not uncommon for sea birds to build or to reinforce their nests with bits and pieces of plastic found floating in the ocean. Hermit crabs, too, are using it (instead of shells left behind by other shellfish) to cover their soft abdomens. And of course plastic can be found in the stomachs of sea turtles, whales and albatrosses.
It is estimated that every day the world is giving away one billion disposable bags, of which 3 million end up in the ocean.
