Nine years ago, in August 2015, Christine Figgener posted a of her team removing a plastic straw from the nostril of a turtle. It went viral.
Christine is a friend of mine and fellow marine biologist. We have both conducted sea turtle research off the coast of Costa Rica, where her video was captured. It is emotional and disturbing 鈥� but for us this sort of occurrence is common. We regularly find turtles entangled in fishing gear, and I have seen turtles鈥� insides filled with plastic. What surprised all of us was how impactful the video would prove to be.
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In the years since, the video鈥檚 visceral imagery has helped the turtle become the face of the plastic pollution crisis 鈥� as exemplified in the comedy , when a customer reprimands a shopkeeper for using plastic bags because they harm the animals. A huge win for conservation, this association of lovable turtles with single-use plastic has empowered consumers to demand companies do better 鈥� the UK in 2020 and many countries have banned plastic bags.
However, have ingested some form of plastic, and more than a thousand a year still die from it. They eat this stuff not just because it looks like food, but because it smells like it too. A found odours from marine plastic elicit foraging behaviour in sea turtles because plastic becomes 鈥渂iofouled鈥� by algae and bacteria that grow on it in the water, making it smell organic.
In order to turn the tide on this devastating loss of marine life, it is vital that we put pressure on big corporations and push for more legislation, especially when it comes to greenwashing. For example, most so-called biodegradable plastics are marketed as eco-friendly, but simply contain additives that break the plastic down more quickly into microplastics. Instead of clogging a turtle鈥檚 nose, these find their way into the animal鈥檚 tissues, damaging its physiology.
It is clear that stopping plastic at its source and removing it from our oceans must be prioritised. We cannot let the nightmare scenario of having more in the sea by 2050 become a reality. While a reduction in overall production of this material will be critical, we also need a raft of initiatives to collect and recycle plastic waste, such as Prevented Ocean Plastic, for which I am an ambassador. This programme works with recyclers in at-risk coastal communities to incentivise the collection of plastic bottles for recycling 鈥� just one part of a sector in which technology is improving all the time.
Alongside safeguarding biodiversity, cutting plastic pollution is essential to addressing the climate crisis. Plastic is made from fossil fuels, and for the duration of its existence. In total, its production, conversion and wastemanagement generates about 4 per cent of global emissions 鈥� .
The rising temperatures caused by these emissions have grave consequences for marine life. Take sea turtles as a case in point. Their sex is determined by the weather. Cooler temperatures produce male hatchlings and warmer ones produce females. An overheating world will result in imbalanced populations, threatening the species鈥� very existence. There are also limits to the temperatures that living organisms can tolerate. Few sea turtle hatchlings survive above 32掳C (90掳F) and hardly any above 35掳C (95掳F).
As Figgener鈥檚 video so clearly demonstrated, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find oceans and marine life devoid of plastic pollution. But rather than discourage us, these powerful images must serve as grim reminders and motivation to drive action on phasing out single-use plastics altogether.
Vanessa B茅zy is a听marine听biologist and听Prevented Ocean Plastic ambassador
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