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Study: Plastic found in the smallest of baby sea turtles in Northeast Florida

One baby sea turtle had 276 pieces of plastic in its gut.

FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. — Plastic makes up a good chunk of pollution on land and in the oceans.

Scientists know this, but what they didn’t have scientific proof for is the sheer amount of plastic in animals right here on the First Coast. The proof came in tiny baby sea turtles.

Baby sea turtles hatch and make their way to the ocean. They swim and they eat, but sometimes storms push the babies back onto the beach. Those picked up from Northeast Florida beaches are taken to the University of Florida's Whitney Marine Lab in Flagler County for rehab. Cat Eastman is the program director at the Sea Turtle Hospital there.

"If they die in our care, we perform a necropsy which is an autopsy on an animal," Eastman explained. "So it is like a CSI of 'What did this turtle eat?'"

Those necropsies started revealing something scary. The veterinarian and vet technicians found plastic.  

"And so we thought, 'OK, let's try another one,'" Eastman recalled. "And then, lo and behold, it kind of just blew up from there."

Baby turtle after baby turtle had plastic in their digestive systems. It ranged from one piece of plastic per turtle to 276 pieces of plastic per baby sea turtle. 

Ninety-three percent of the baby sea turtles they examined had plastic in their guts.

"This is hard plastic, soft plastic, latex sheet material," Eastman said. 

So Eastman, researcher Dr. David Duffy and their colleagues started to document this information and published the study.

Scientists across the world know animals and larger sea turtles are ingesting plastic. However, this study showed baby sea turtles were eating it too.

"That says we have a real problem," Duffy said. "We knew that turtles eat plastic and that it's obviously not a good thing. But we didn't realize that there was this vulnerable age class, that was almost all individuals are now being affected."

For Eastman, this hit home.

"So when you know that these turtles have come from Florida somewhere, it's not a 'not in my backyard kind of problem.' That is a Florida problem," Eastman said. 

The sight of so many babies, clogged full of plastic pieces, "really motivated me. I mean, it made me angry," she added.

She's angry because that plastic comes from us.

Duffy said, "Independent research has shown that there are about 11 million tons of plastic entering the ocean every year."

Eastman added, "It's one thing to just sort of speak about this plastic problem, but it's another when you say, "Well, what do we do now? This is here!"

Scientists are stressing the need to use less plastic and to find alternatives to plastic.

"So we don't have the evidence yet to be able to say plastic is killing them," Duffy noted, "but it's pretty clear that it's not a good thing. And we're seeing a lot of turtles that don't make it have a lot of plastic ingested."

It’s not just turtles at risk. Plastic has been found in birds, fish, and humans now.

"We've gotta give up this love affair with plastic. We've got to make a change because it's hitting everybody," Eastman said. 

And if baby sea turtles are encountering plastic, what’s the chance of them growing old enough to make more baby sea turtles?

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