Litter threatens sea turtle survival

Michelle Nick AAP Sydney Morning Herald 6 Jun 11;

Balloons, plastic bags, nylon rope and even rubber thongs are providing a deadly diet for Australia's critically endangered sea turtle population, a new study shows.

On the eve of World Ocean Day, research by the Earthwatch program Turtles in Trouble has shown that 36 per cent of Australian sea turtles are affected by marine litter, with some 18,000 pieces of plastic litter floating on every square kilometre of the world's oceans.

University of Queensland marine biologist Dr Kathy Townsend said the problem of marine waste had to be tackled before the already low population numbers of sea turtles became even more depleted.

"This thing is everyone's fault, and because it's everyone's fault no one takes responsibility," Dr Townsend said.

"We need to stop generating so much waste.

"We are doing the inconceivable, we are starting to fill up the oceans of the world."

The Turtles in Trouble program found turtles had swallowed balloons, plastic bags, nylon rope, styrofoam and thongs, among other things, possibly mistaking them for jellyfish.

Once ingested, the plastic causes a gut impaction which leads to the contents of the animal's gut decomposing.

"The animal becomes positively buoyant and it can't dive down to eat, it can't get out of the way of predators, it can't get out of the way of boats, so it really is quite a tragic thing," Dr Townsend said.

It can result in so-called "floating syndrome", where the turtle may take months to gradually starve to death.

"It's a really long, drawn-out, painful death," Dr Townsend said.

Earthwatch Australia executive director Richard Gilmore said a number of measures can be taken to reduce marine rubbish.

"Australia's marine environment is absolutely fundamental to our economy, our environment and to our way of life," Mr Gilmore said.

Dr Townsend said that everyone can do their share.

"Start refusing those items that have a useful lifetime of only minutes and yet take years if not decades to degrade," she said.

"Do you really need to have a plastic top on your paper coffee cup? Refuse that, you don't need that".

Marine rubbish also affects Victoria's famous fairy penguins, which frequently get entangled in debris.

Dr Townsend said if the problem is not addressed it will only get worse but with awareness she hopes the correct choices will be made to reduce the amount of rubbish reaching the marine environment.

Third of dead turtles killed by marine rubbish
Lexi Metherell ABC News 7 Jun 11;

A new study has revealed the number of turtles being killed by rubbish dumped in the ocean is far higher than rangers previously estimated.

The Earthwatch research reveals that more than one third of turtles that die in Moreton Bay have either eaten or been entangled in marine rubbish.

For a long time it has been thought turtles mistakenly consume soft plastic items like plastic bags and cling film because they believe they are jellyfish.

The report provides more evidence that the creatures are selecting soft plastics over other types of rubbish.

Earthwatch researcher Dr Kathy Townsend dissected and examined the guts of more than 120 dead turtles from the eastern areas of Moreton Bay in Queensland.

She says soft plastic items were found more often than hard plastic, and 30 per cent of the dead turtles she examined had ingested rubbish.

"We went out and looked at what we were finding in the guts of the turtle and then compared that to what we were finding on the beaches in which the turtles had washed up," she said.

"Surprisingly what we ended up finding is that the turtles seem to be selecting or targeting soft plastics with the idea that perhaps these animals are targeting that because they look like jellyfish."

Dr Townsend says ingesting rubbish is particularly dangerous for turtles because of their anatomy.

She says swallowing rubbish means turtles become dehydrated and starve to death in a process that can drag out for months.

"Sea turtles, because of their anatomy, cannot vomit, so if it can't go out the back end, it ends up getting stuck," she said.

"This debris then causes the gut to enter a type of paralysis state and all of the debris and organics that are mixed in with that debris just start to decompose.

"The decomposition process causes gas and the animals then become positively buoyant and that's not good if you're a marine animal because that means you can no longer dive to feed, you can't dive to get out of the way of predators or boats and things as well."

The research found that another 6 per cent of turtles had died after becoming entangled in rubbish.

Dr Townsend says earlier estimates by rangers had put the proportion of turtles dying because of marine rubbish at just 2 per cent.

"I'm not saying that we all of a sudden have more debris in the environment than we had previously; I don't think that's the case," she said.

"I think it's just a case of our methodology has changed and ... the full impact is now actually coming to light."

Dr Townsend says being hit by a boat is the top threat to turtles in the area, but she says rubbish in the water comes a close second.

She says half of all marine debris comes from the land while the other half is from the boats and ships, which she says are allowed to dump rubbish in the ocean once they are a certain distance from the coast.

"It is one of those issues where it's everybody's fault. It's just the way that we live and it's all about the debris that we're creating," she said.

"As soon as it's everybody's fault, it becomes nobody's responsibility, and that's really the difficult thing to crack.

"You also have to take responsibility on a personal level for the impetus to start - to be able to fix the problem."


Marine muck takes terrible toll on turtles

Lexi Metherell ABC Net 7 Jun 11;

ELEANOR HALL: To Queensland now where a study suggests that the number of turtles being killed by rubbish dumped in the ocean is far higher than rangers had previously estimated.

The research is being released today by Earthwatch. It reveals that more than a third of the turtles who die in Moreton Bay have either eaten or been entangled in marine rubbish, as Lexi Metherell reports.

LEXI METHERELL: It's long been thought that turtles mistakenly consume soft plastic items like plastic bags and cling film because they believe they're jelly fish, and there's now more evidence that the creatures are selecting soft plastics over other types of rubbish.

KATHY TOWSEND: We went out and looked at what we were finding in the guts of the turtle and then compared that to what we were finding on the beaches in which the turtles had washed up and surprisingly what we ended up finding is that the turtles seem to be selecting or targeting soft plastics with the idea that perhaps these animals are targeting that because they look like jellyfish.

LEXI METHERELL: The University of Queensland's Dr Kathy Townsend is a researcher with Earthwatch.

She dissected and examined the contents of the gut of more than 120 dead turtles from the eastern areas of Morton Bay in Queensland.

She says far more soft plastic items than hard plastic items were found in their gut, and 30 per cent of the dead turtles she examined had ingested rubbish.

KATHY TOWSEND: Sea turtles, because of their anatomy, cannot vomit so if it can't go out the back end, it ends up getting stuck. This debris then causes the gut to enter a type of paralysis state and all of the debris and the organics that are mixed in with that debris just start to decompose.

And the decomposition process causes gas and the animals then become positively buoyant and that's not good if you're a marine animal because that means you can no longer dive to feed, you can't dive to get out of the way of predators or boats and all these other things as well.

So it also means that they basically become very dehydrated and they starve to death and this can last for months.

LEXI METHERELL: Another 6 per cent had died after becoming entangled in rubbish.

Doctor Townsend says earlier estimates by rangers had put the proportion of turtles dying because of marine rubbish at just 2 per cent.

KATHY TOWSEND: I'm not saying that we all of a sudden have more debris in the environment than we had previously, I don't think that's the case. I think it's just a case of our methodology has changed and we're actually - the full impact is now actually coming to light.

LEXI METHERELL: Dr Townsend says being hit by a boat is the top threat to turtles in the area, but she says rubbish in the water comes a close second.

She says half of all marine debris comes from the land. The other half is from the boats and ships, which she says are allowed to dump rubbish in the ocean once they're a certain distance from the coast.

KATHY TOWSEND: It's one of those issues where it's everybody's fault because it's just the way that we live and it's all about the debris that we're creating and as soon as it's everybody's fault, it becomes nobody's responsibility and that's really the difficult thing to crack.

You also have to take responsibility on a personal level for the impetus to start, to be able to fix the problem.

ELEANOR HALL: And that's Dr Kathy Townsend from Earthwatch ending that report by Lexi Metherell.


Plastic greatest danger for marine turtles
EarthWatch Media Release 6 Jun 11;
with links to other media reports

NEW research from the Earthwatch program Turtles in Trouble shows that 36 per cent of marine turtles are affected by marine rubbish, with soft plastic being the major villain.

Marine scientist Dr Kathy Townsend, of the University of Queensland, says the results of the project shows the impact marine rubbish has on the death of turtles is more than 17 times higher than the two per cent previously suggested.

"Turtles have been found to have eaten most plastic items, but the most common items eaten are soft plastics, such as plastic bags and lolly wrappers, and pieces of hard broken-down plastic," Dr Townsend said.

"The ratio of soft plastics - plastic bags, bait bags and cling film - to hard plastics found in turtle gut contents compared to the ratio found in the environment was significantly higher."

She said this indicated that turtles select soft plastics as food, as has been suggested anecdotally.

The executive director of Earthwatch Australia, Richard Gilmore, said the new research and the work of Dr Townsend highlighted the need for the community to be more aware of the impact of marine rubbish.