A sea turtle has a 22% chance of dying to eat it eats just 1 piece plastic, an Australian scientific institution revealed this week, quantifying for the first time the risk that plastic pollution poses to these animals.
Scientists found that there was a 50% likelihood that a sea turtle would die if it had 14 plastic items in its guts, going to a statement from the Commonwealth Scientific and industrial research organization(CSIRO).
However, “ even the single piece of plastic can kill a turtle”, said Kathy Townsend of the University of Sunshine Coast, who participated in the analysis of nearly 1,000 turtles found dead and washed up on beaches around Australia, reports Efe news.
“Some of the turtles we studied had eaten only one piece of plastic, which was enough to kill it. In one case, the gut was punctured, and in the other, the soft plastic clogged the gut,” Townsend said.
Prior to this study, it was unclear if the plastic in the oceans killed sea turtles or if they simply ingested them without major harm.
Sea turtles are among the first animals recorded to consume plastic debris, a phenomenon that occurs worldwide in all seven species of marine turtles.
Globally, it is estimated that 52 percent of sea turtles have eaten plastic. According to the UN, eight million tonnes of plastic waste ended up in the ocean each year. The UN suggested that if this trend continues, there will likely be more plastics than fish in the ocean by 2050, as seabed pollution is already present in every region worldwide.
Here a recent news with a photo as an evidence, that the sea creatures are in danger, due to plastic debris.......................
Dead black-footed albatross with its stomach split open showing all the plastic it has ingested while feeding at sea.
Comment your views about this serious topic........................
