Sea turtles eat plastic garbage because it smells delicious
Odors from marine plastic debris elicit foraging behavior in sea turtles: Current Biology
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)30115-9
Plastic could be deadly for sea turtles because it smells like food-CNET
https://www.cnet.com/news/plastic-could-be-deadly-for-sea-turtles-because-it-smells-like-food/
Plastic garbage floating in the sea has a serious adverse effect on marine ecosystems, especially sea turtles that are low in population and designated as endangered species are entangled in discarded nets or swallowed by plastic garbage and die. Cases have been reported one after another.
In 2018, we dissected 102 species of seven sea turtles living in the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Pacific Ocean that were killed after they were launched on the coast or caught in fishing nets. More than 800 plastic trash, including butts and rope shards, were reportedly found.
However, the reason why sea turtles ingest plastic garbage has not been well understood, and it has been explained that 'the plastic bag may look like a jellyfish'.
A research team led by Professor Kenneth J. Roman's biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill turned his attention to sea turtle smell. The smell of deionized water, clean plastic, bait for loggerhead turtles, and plastic waste contaminated with microorganisms, algae, plankton, etc. is released into the air in the tank where loggerhead turtles are bred, and the reaction of loggerhead turtles is observed. did.
As a result, it was confirmed that the loggerhead turtle sticked out its nose from the water surface and smelled the smell of the biologically contaminated plastic garbage. The reaction of the loggerhead turtle was the same as when the smell of food was flushed into the aquarium.
Microorganisms and algae that adhere to plastic waste are essentially food for loggerhead turtles. Until now, sea turtles were thought to be misunderstood as food with 'the appearance of plastic garbage', but in fact ' smell of plastic garbage ' also had a significant effect on sea turtles. The researchers commented that they were surprised to see that the loggerhead turtle responded accurately to the smell of microorganisms and algae attached to plastic waste.
`` For sea turtles, the problem of marine plastic is as simple as 'the plastic bag looks like a jellyfish or straw', '' said Joseph Farrer, a researcher and co-author of the
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