Honoring Earth Day—
By Roz Brown, producer, California News Service, a bureau of Public News Service.
Seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals along the California coast can suffer and even die after ingesting plastic, and the lethal quantity is less than you might think.
Erin Murphy, manager of ocean plastics research for the Ocean Conservancy, said it is the size of two baseballs for a sea turtle, three sugar cubes for a puffin and a soccer ball for a harbor porpoise. Murphy led a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which analyzed data from more than 10,000 necropsies and calculated amounts consistent with a 90% likelihood of death.
“We are only looking at sea life and we were focused on macroplastics, debris that are larger than five millimeters in length,” Murphy explained. “Because of this, we are really interested in those physical impacts of ingestion.
Study Results
The study found plastic in nearly half of the sea turtles and a third of the seabirds examined in necropsies. Murphy pointed out rubber and hard plastics are most fatal to seabirds. At the same time, ingesting just three pieces of a balloon causes a 50% greater chance of their death. Hard pieces of plastic can puncture or tear the internal organs of an animal and kill it, while the gradual buildup of plastic fragments or large pieces can block food from digesting, causing them to starve.
Murphy noted juvenile animals of all species generally ate more plastic than their adult counterparts. The study did not include data on microplastics or analyze animals killed after getting entangled in fishing gear.
This year’s annual Earth Day observance fell on Wednesday, April 22, but many communities across California are planning activities for the weekend of April 25-26. Murphy acknowledged systemic change and statewide policies are needed to reduce ocean plastics but it is still a good time to get involved in protecting the environment.
“Going out and just removing a few pieces of debris off your local beaches or out of your local parks can make a big difference in helping protect the animals that live around you,” Murphy encouraged.
The Ocean Conservancy has launched a new calculator allowing volunteers to determine how many marine animals they help protect by cleaning up plastic trash.
