Figure 10.37

Plastic threatens marine animals. (A) This green sea turtle is dining on a jellyfish, a main food for sea turtles. To sea turtles, translucent plastic bags suspended in the water look like jellyfish. Ingested plastic can kill a sea turtle by blocking its digestive tract. (B) This adolescent Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) from Kure Atoll probably died of starvation as its parents fed it a diet of plastic. Its stomach was filled with 340 g (12 oz) of trash. Plastic ingestion is a common cause of mortality for albatross nestlings on Hawai‘i. Worldwide, seabird mortality from eating plastic is estimated to be about 1 million birds per year. Fish mortality related to plastic is unknown.