Study Finds Plastic Ingestion Is Widespread in Sea Turtles Off Australia’s Coast

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 17:50:14 +0000

Around 83% of green turtles and 86% of loggerhead turtles found off the coast of Queensland were found to have plastics within them, a study from Deakin, James Cook and Murdoch universities found.

Researchers examined the contents of the stomach, intestines, cloaca and bladder of stranded or captured turtles collected from the Indian Ocean off Western Australia and the Pacific Ocean off Eastern Australia.

One turtle found in the Indian Ocean contained 343 pieces of plastic while another in the Pacific Ocean contained 144.

The proportion of turtles that had ingested plastic was much higher in the Pacific Ocean than in the Indian Ocean.

wildlife ingestion – Aquarius-Systems

Study Finds Plastic Ingestion Is Widespread in Sea Turtles Off Australia’s Coast