Case report: Ingestion of a massive amount of debris by a green turtle (Chelonia mydas) in Southern Brazil

Abstract

Marine debris is considered any solid waste (plastic, polystyrene, rubber, foam, glass, metal, cloth, and other man-made materials) that enters the marine or coastal environments from any source (Coe & Rogers 2000). The main sources of marine debris are litter carried into the sea from land-based sources in industrialized and highly populated areas and wastes from ships, fishing and recreational vessels (Derraik 2002). However, regardless of the source, marine debris can have serious ecological and economic consequences. These adverse impacts have been documented all over the world. According to Gregory & Ryan (1997), plastic pollution is estimated to represent between 60% and 80% of the total marine debris in the world's oceans. Within just a few decades since mass production of plastic products commenced in the 1950s, plastic debris has accumulated in terrestrial environments, in the open ocean, on shorelines and in the deep sea (Barnes et al. 2009). Every year, many species of marine animals, including sea turtles, marine mammals, seabirds and fish die from becoming entangled or ingesting plastic debris (Laist 1987). According to Carr (1987) sea turtles are particularly prone to eating plastics and other floating debris. Juvenile sea turtles are frequently exposed to pollution in convergence zones and most species are exposed in nearshore habitats, where they feed (Bjorndal et al. 1994). Evidence indicates that the high occurrence of non-food items in sea turtle species may be related to mistaken ingestion of plastics, due to its similarity to prey items (Plotkin et al. 1993), or even to incidental ingestion along with a prey (Tomás et al. 2002).