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Analysis of Debris Ingestion By Sea Turtles

The most frequent waste wildlife consumes plastic, the primary type of garbage found in

marine and coastal habitats. The manufacture of plastic has increased immensely worldwide over

the last sixty years. The consequences of plastic on aquatic biota may have increased.

Approximately 170 organisms are impacted by marine trash consumption (SCHUYLER et al.

130). The toxic chemicals in plastics might have sub-chronic impacts on growth and migration

patterns. Ingesting debris can cause death through intestinal rupture or entrapment.

From the observation of the various turtle species, there was an increase in plastic

ingestion. The softest, clearest, and whitest polymers were the most frequently recovered from

the swallowed plastic materials. Several marine animals have been shown to have died due to

plastic in the marine environment. The abundance and growth of these elements in the marine

environment may harm marine biodiversity. This study documented the first instance of a green

turtle dying from ingesting plastic.

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Y-Values

Probability of debris ingestion

1.2
1
1
0.8
0.8
0.6
0.6 Y-Values
0.4
0.4
0.2
0.2
0
0
6/7/1905 6/12/1905 6/17/1905 6/22/1905 6/27/1905 7/2/1905 7/7/1905

Year

The figure above show change in probability of ingestion of debris over time for different species of sea
presence [1.0] or absence [0.0] debris in turtles from one iteration of a monte Carlo function.

they specifically looked into whether the incidence

of ingestion has altered over the years, what kinds of
Sea turtles are known to be at risk debris would be most frequently ingested, the spread
from ingesting marine garbage. It of marine turtles ingesting debris in comparison to
was measured and compared worldwide debris transmission, and which species
across species, turtle length, body and phases of life will be most likely to consume
composition, gender, capture debris.
location and year in the
gastrointestinal tracts of 55 sea
turtles caught in Pacific longline
fisheries.

The Pacific green turtles consumed
A worldwide consistent and about eight times as much plastic
comparable data set might be (19.5 g) each turtle. Two of these
produced by regulating green turtles were in fair physical
reporting process for debris condition and had consumed 18.5
effects on biodiversity, g and 4.1g of of debris, which
comprising debris size and accounted for 1.56% and 0.45% of
type, species, and their stomach contents. The olive
developmental stage of species ridley turtle with the smallest body
impacted. size had 1.04 g of ingested plastic,
or 0.350% of the gut contents.
They may not have been able to
detect health effects due to
limitations in the methodologies
employed to evaluate the health
of the turtles in the current
investigation. For all these
reasons, they cannot completely
rule out the potential that the
ingested polymers were having
unreported health effects.
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The method used for this research is as described below:

Step 1:
Step 3: Use of Step 5:
Definition of Step 2:
Monte Carlo Step 4: Mapped Aggregated
topic and Selection of
simulaiton to the percentage reports to
searched ISI peer reviewed
establish of turtles found determine
web of publications
likelihood of to have pecieis effect
knowldge and and 3
marine debris ingested on probability
the aquatic conference
ingestion by debris. of ingestion
sciences and proeedings.
turtles. debris.
fisheries.

The results showed that sea turtles ingested debris. Some studies indicated soft plastics

(n=19) and rigid plastics (n=12). Approximately half of the studies noted that debris ingestion

(n=16) did not highlight whether the debris was the primary cause of death. Most of the waste

turtles consume plastic (SCHUYLER et al. 131). Further small amounts of garbage ingested by

turtles also resulted in obstruction and mortality.

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Works Cited

SCHUYLER, QAMAR, et al. “Global Analysis of Anthropogenic Debris Ingestion by Sea

Turtles.” Conservation Biology, vol. 28, no. 1, 5 Aug. 2014, pp. 129–139,

https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12126.