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Color-driven prey similarity can drive selective ingestion of plastics in sea turtles
Summary
Sea turtles often mistake floating plastic for food like jellyfish, and this study shows color is a big reason why—turtles that got used to eating green-colored food later showed a stronger preference for green items, even fake ones. This matters because it proves plastic pollution isn't just an eyesore in the ocean—it's actively fooling marine animals into eating it, which means the plastic (and any chemicals it carries) can work its way up the food chain, potentially affecting the seafood many of us eat.
The hypothesis that sea turtles ingest marine plastic debris because it visually resembles their natural prey, such as jellyfish, has long been proposed, but the supporting evidence has relied largely on necropsy analyses and thus remains indirect. Such observational approaches cannot disentangle which specific attributes of plastic trigger ingestion. In this study, we experimentally tested whether plastic ingestion by sea turtles may be influenced by color similarity to prey, and further examined how prior feeding experience influences such selective responses. At baseline, turtles showed the lowest preference for green among six novel items. After a period of exposure to green-dyed food, turtles exposed to this treatment showed an increased preference for green when the same six-item novel test was repeated. These results provide experimental evidence that color similarity to prey can act as a causal factor under controlled conditions and demonstrate that color preference is not a fixed innate bias but a flexible response modifiable by experience. By integrating behavioral experimentation into a field dominated by necropsy-based inference, this study provides a framework for identifying the drivers of plastic ingestion. Ultimately, our findings highlight the value of incorporating behavioral ecology into marine conservation strategies and underscore its potential to inform more effective measures to mitigate plastic risks for large marine vertebrates.