Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday September 14 2018, @12:01AM   Printer-friendly
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)


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @12:24AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @12:24AM (#734578)

    Why yes. And did you know that eating a single piece of plastic [amazon.com] has a good chance of killing a human, too?

    The article provides no context, or any reason why this is a newsworthy item. How big a piece of plastic is it, and how likely is it that a turtle will encounter and subsequently eat that piece of plastic? Is this a problem overall, and to what extent?

    "A piece of plastic the size of a pinhead has a 99% chance of killing the turtle" is very different than "a metric ton of Ikea shelving has a 51% chance of killing a turtle."

    Unfortunately, this article does nothing to add any context. It does a good job of triggering fear and outrage, though, so it has that going for it.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Insightful=1, Funny=1, Overrated=1, Total=3
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 4, Informative) by acid andy on Friday September 14 2018, @12:31AM

    by acid andy (1683) on Friday September 14 2018, @12:31AM (#734587) Homepage Journal

    It's mentioned in TFA that they were looking at the contents of the turtles' digestive tracts in postmortems so obviously it's plastic in their habitat that was small enough for them to swallow. They mention the possibility of it obstructing their digestive tract, so for a single piece, we're not talking microplastics. Given the scale of plastic pollution in the ocean, the problem is real. Yes, the message has been simplified for the masses but raising awareness of this problem is a good thing!

    --
    If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?