Scientists say more sea turtles are eating plastic and dying

Sea turtles eat a very big variety of things but one of them should not be plastic. Scientists have done a study to try and see what see turtles eat. The study showed that at least have of sea turtles and seabirds eat plastic.

 Qamar Schuyler, is a scientist who lead the study about turtles. Her study turned out to say that about 13 million tons of plastic is thrown into the ocean a year. The east coast has lots if plastic caused by human pollution.

Her research is just like school. She mostly used just science and math to find her study. She used math to estimate how many turtles eat plastic or get stuck in plastic. To verify how many turtles eat plastic she would open the dead turtles up to see there was any plastic in their system, which could of caused their death.


Olive Ridley sea turtles are use to eating jelly fish but instead they have been found to have more plastic in their body then any other turtle. If this keeps going on it could cause these turtles to close extinction. Schuyler says we don't just need to protect these animals from hunters we need to protect them from human garbage.

Not just the mass of the plastic they eat can kill them but the poisons in the plastic can kill them to. Sometime turtles die because of the poison from the plastic that seeps into the water. Eating plastic can also cause them to die of hunger because they always feel so full that they don't notice they are hungry and they need food.