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High frequency of micro- and meso-plastics ingestion in a sample of neonate sea turtles from a major rookery
Summary
Researchers found that 79% of neonate sea turtles washed ashore dead on Florida's Atlantic coast had ingested plastics, with microplastics being the most common type found. This high rate of plastic ingestion in very young turtles—before they have even left coastal waters—points to a severe and early-life pollution problem affecting an already threatened species.
We studied marine litter ingestion in 380 neonate sea turtles that washed ashore dead onto Florida's central Atlantic coast (USA) following onshore winds. Our sample of "washbacks" included 284 loggerheads (Caretta caretta), 95 green turtles (Chelonia mydas), and one hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata). Of these, 78.7% had ingested plastics and 45.3% had ingested tar. There was a significant relationship between turtles' carapace length and total mass of ingested plastic. Ingested plastics included microplastics (<5 mm) and larger sizes up to 25% of carapace length. Washbacks' body condition indices were significantly poorer than condition indices of wild turtles captured at sea. Washbacks showed a negative association between plastic load and body condition index, evidence that high plastic loads resulted in diminished nutrition, with possible effects on somatic growth, stage duration, and survivorship. Evidence points to plastics ingestion being an important source of population-level effects in neonate sea turtles.