Plastic is destroying life on the ground as well as underwater. We have stumbled upon many heart-wrenching videos of turtles who¡¯ve consumed plastic.
And while many feel they consume the plastic either because it looks like food (they love jellyfishes), unavailability of food, the actual reason is something entirely different.
According to a study published in journal Current Biology, it is the aroma of plastic that fools the poor turtle from consuming it. Apparently, when the plastic gets bioaccumulation on them after being underwater for a considerable amount of time, it releases an odour not very different from food turtles are used to eating.?
For this study, they got 15 loggerhead turtles and various airborne odorants, testing their reaction to each. They sent these odours through a pipe underwater, only to see them attracted to the plastic odour.
In another test, through the same pipe they sent food for turtles as well as biofouled plastic (plastic with underwater bioaccumulation). Oddly, turtles reacted in a similar way with both of them.
Joseph Pfaller of the University of Florida, Gainesville, one of the leading authors of the study, ¡°We were surprised that turtles responded to odors from biofouled plastic with the same intensity as their food. We expected them to respond to both to a greater extent than the control treatments, but the turtles know the smell of their food since they've been smelling and eating it in captivity for five months. I expected their responses to food to be stronger.¡±
He further added, ¡°The plastic problem in the ocean is more complex than plastic bags that look like jellyfish or the errant straw stuck in a turtle's nose. These are important and troubling pieces to the puzzle, and all plastics pose dangers to turtles.¡±