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from the teenage-mutant-ninja-plastic-eaters dept.
'A single piece of plastic' can kill sea turtles, says study
A new study suggests that ingesting even a single piece of plastic can be deadly for sea turtles. Researchers found there was a one in five chance of death for a turtle who consumed just one item - rising to 50% for 14 pieces. The team found that younger turtles are at a higher risk of dying from exposure to plastic than adults.
The authors say their research raises concerns over the long term survival of some turtle species. The never ending surge of plastic into the world's oceans is taking an increasing toll on iconic marine species. While it has been relatively straightforward for researchers to document the threat to animals who become entangled in plastic and drown, determining the impact of consumed plastic is much harder.
The authors of this study estimate that around half of all the sea turtles on the planet have ingested plastic - this rises to 90% among juvenile green sea turtles off the coast of Brazil.
A quantitative analysis linking sea turtle mortality and plastic debris ingestion (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-30038-z) (DX)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by acid andy on Friday September 14 2018, @12:16AM (1 child)
A law could be passed that every quarter in which more than five plastic items bearing a company's logo are found in (and removed from) the ocean, the CEO has to eat a kilo of hard plastic. Similarly if employees or contractors of the company are found to be disposing of plastic in the ocean, the same rule applies. Methinks they might consider doing something about it.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @08:29AM
Here in the Netherlands some people are making lists of "answer addresses" of companies where people can send back plastic packaging material found on the streets to. The company pays for things send to these "answering addresses", thereby giving them a financial incentive to stop packaging stuff in non-renewable packaging. There aren't used that much though.