The problem of discarded plastic and other human-generated pollutants is killing sea turtles–literally. And that is a big problem that everyone should be concerned about. According to scientists, sea turtles are now being discovered, “literally loaded from throat to anus with plastic”.
Sea Turtles Offer Dire Warning of Oceans’ Crisis
Sea Turtles at high risk from human plastic
Sea turtles are a close second to seabirds as the marine life most affected by plastic pollution, because any plastic they encounter they perceive as prey and eat it.
Wallace Nichols, a marine biologist, a senior fellow at the Center for the Blue Economy and author of Blue Mind, says he used to try to estimate how many sea turtles were impacted by plastic pollution, but now the answer to him is simple:
“All of them, 100 percent. But that number should be ‘none of them,’ zero percent.”
“We’re talking about animals that spend much of their lives in the wildest, most distant and uninhabited parts of the ocean, yet they still ingest and swim through plastic out there. Then nesting beaches and even the sex ratios of baby sea turtles are impacted by climate change, and their feeding and nursery areas are being transformed. That’s a big wake-up call.”
“Literally Loaded From Throat to Anus With Plastic”
According to Jeffrey Seminoff, leader of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s Marine Turtle Ecology and Assessment Program with the National Marine Fisheries Service, plastics and microplastics are equally harmful because they suppress immune systems of the marine life that ingests them, as well as causing physiological distress to wildlife…necropsied sea turtles reveal they are literally loaded from throat to anus with plastic.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world, located between Hawaii and California. Recent estimates show that in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch alone (and there are at least four other massive oceanic garbage patches around the world), there are more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic, weighing an estimated 88,000 tons. That is the equivalent of 500 jumbo jets and includes a plastic count that is equivalent to 250 pieces of debris for every single human on Earth.
Why people should care if sea turtles are being harmed by our plastic
“If you don’t have sea turtles in these coastal ecosystems, the ecosystems suffer, because [sea turtles] are incredibly important for the entire system to function in a healthy manner.”
– Jeffrey Seminoff, leader of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s Marine Turtle Ecology and Assessment Program with the National Marine Fisheries Service
What can you do?
At the individual level choose to say ‘no’ to items made of plastic and Styrofoam. You can also educate others–coworkers, friends, neighbors–about the serious state of sea turtles and other marine mammals being harmed by our penchant for plastic.