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The feeding habit of sea turtles influences their reaction to artificial marine debris
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Video cameras attached to sea turtles and fecal analysis showed that loggerhead and green turtles frequently encounter and ingest artificial marine debris, with debris found in over 84% of loggerhead gut contents examined. Feeding habitat and diet type influenced debris exposure — carnivorous loggerheads encountered far more plastic debris than herbivorous green turtles.
Ingestion of artificial debris is considered as a significant stress for wildlife including sea turtles. To investigate how turtles react to artificial debris under natural conditions, we deployed animal-borne video cameras on loggerhead and green turtles in addition to feces and gut contents analyses from 2007 to 2015. Frequency of occurrences of artificial debris in feces and gut contents collected from loggerhead turtles were 35.7% (10/28) and 84.6% (11/13), respectively. Artificial debris appeared in all green turtles in feces (25/25) and gut contents (10/10), and green turtles ingested more debris (feces; 15.8 ± 33.4 g, gut; 39.8 ± 51.2 g) than loggerhead turtles (feces; 1.6 ± 3.7 g, gut; 9.7 ± 15.0 g). In the video records (60 and 52.5 hours from 10 loggerhead and 6 green turtles, respectively), turtles encountered 46 artificial debris and ingested 23 of them. The encounter-ingestion ratio of artificial debris in green turtles (61.8%) was significantly higher than that in loggerhead turtles (16.7%). Loggerhead turtles frequently fed on gelatinous prey (78/84), however, green turtles mainly fed marine algae (156/210), and partly consumed gelatinous prey (10/210). Turtles seemed to confuse solo drifting debris with their diet, and omnivorous green turtles were more attracted by artificial debris.
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Researchers analyzed gut contents of 96 stranded green turtles from Uruguay and found debris in 70% of individuals, with hard plastics most abundant by weight; smaller (juvenile) turtles had significantly more debris ingestion, identifying the early juvenile life stage as particularly vulnerable to plastic pollution in the southwestern Atlantic.
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Researchers analysed gastrointestinal tracts of 24 juvenile loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) collected in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre near the Azores, finding that 20 of 24 individuals had ingested plastic debris, highlighting the vulnerability of oceanic-stage juveniles to plastic pollution.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.