Source: CNBC
New research found that ocean turtles are eating plastics that smell like food and dying from it. According to researchers, it only takes about a dozen pieces of plastic to kill one turtle.
New estimates suggest that more than half of sea turtles around the world have ingested plastic to some degree, while “every seabird has eaten plastic.”
The study by scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that sea turtles easily mistake the smell of plastic for food.
“This finding is important because it’s the first demonstration that the odor of ocean plastics causes animals to eat them,” said UNC-Chapel Hill biologist Kenneth J. Lohmann, as reported by CNBC.
Sea turtles “responded to the smell of food and ocean-soaked plastics by sticking their noses out of the water to smell.”
Read Full Story: CNBC