Moreton Bay turtles dying from ingesting plastic
The fertile environment of Moreton Bay is becoming increasingly hazardous for turtles, with almost a third of dead turtles found to have eaten plastic in the ocean. They are particularly at risk because of the way they gather food.
Source: AM | Duration: 2min 50sec
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The turtles in Queensland's Moreton Bay are under increasing threat from plastics and marine debris ingestion.
A University of Queensland study has found that the garbage is leading to untimely and agonising deaths.
Moreton Bay has long been a fertile environment for turtles with a range of species found around the islands in the waters east of Brisbane.
Qamar Schuyler has just finished the four year study which found that nearly a third of turtles found dead on beaches had eaten plastics and that they were particularly at risk because of the way they look for food.
She told Nance Haxton on Stradbroke Island that the only way to stop the process is to find better ways of preventing plastics entering the ocean.
QAMAR SCHUYLER: There are a couple of different ways that marine debris can cause death. If they swallow it, it can block their intestinal system so they are no longer able to feed properly.
Also if their intestinal system is blocked, the food that's already in their stomach can start to decompose and create gases and then they float to the surface. So when they're at the surface, well, a) they can't feed properly. But also they're susceptible to boat strikes and exposure. So they get sunburned and their shells crack. And so they can have quite long, slow, terrible deaths once they've eaten marine debris.
Here on Straddy, we have an amazing sea turtle population in Moreton Bay. It's an amazing spot for sea turtles. But our research indicates that overall just over 30 per cent of those turtles that we've found washed up dead on the beaches have eaten plastics.
NANCE HAXTON: That's quite a significant number.
QAMAR SCHUYLER: That is. And it's even more interesting when you kind of break it down a little bit further. So often you'll find them in places like gyres and eddies where floating things tend to congregate. But unfortunately because this is all current generated, plastics also end up there in very, very large numbers.
So what we're finding is that these sea turtles that have been feeding out in more open ocean areas are much more prone to have eaten debris than the sea turtles that are feeding close in to shore.
NANCE HAXTON: So this is obviously such a big problem, it's hard to break it down. What have you found in your PhD as a way, as some of the responses we should have?
QAMAR SCHUYLER: This is a problem that's getting worse, particularly for certain species. But we do see that it's a growing problem and it's really rising exponentially, plastic production around the world.
There is an increasing awareness of the problem, an increasing awareness of the need to do something about that problem. But I think that we need to take a really more global perspective on it and try to work out solutions.
The critical situation is really to have a line in the sand where plastic does not pass this line, you know, we do not let plastics go into our environment.
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Qamar Schuyler speaking to Nance Haxton on Stradbroke Island.