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. 2016 Jun 16:6:28015.
doi: 10.1038/srep28015.

The feeding habit of sea turtles influences their reaction to artificial marine debris

Takuya Fukuoka  1 , Misaki Yamane  1 , Chihiro Kinoshita  1 , Tomoko Narazaki  1 , Greg J Marshall  2 , Kyler J Abernathy  2 , Nobuyuki Miyazaki  3 , Katsufumi Sato  1
Affiliations

The feeding habit of sea turtles influences their reaction to artificial marine debris

Takuya Fukuoka et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Ingestion of artificial debris is considered as a significant stress for wildlife including sea turtles. To investigate how turtles react to artificial debris under natural conditions, we deployed animal-borne video cameras on loggerhead and green turtles in addition to feces and gut contents analyses from 2007 to 2015. Frequency of occurrences of artificial debris in feces and gut contents collected from loggerhead turtles were 35.7% (10/28) and 84.6% (11/13), respectively. Artificial debris appeared in all green turtles in feces (25/25) and gut contents (10/10), and green turtles ingested more debris (feces; 15.8 ± 33.4 g, gut; 39.8 ± 51.2 g) than loggerhead turtles (feces; 1.6 ± 3.7 g, gut; 9.7 ± 15.0 g). In the video records (60 and 52.5 hours from 10 loggerhead and 6 green turtles, respectively), turtles encountered 46 artificial debris and ingested 23 of them. The encounter-ingestion ratio of artificial debris in green turtles (61.8%) was significantly higher than that in loggerhead turtles (16.7%). Loggerhead turtles frequently fed on gelatinous prey (78/84), however, green turtles mainly fed marine algae (156/210), and partly consumed gelatinous prey (10/210). Turtles seemed to confuse solo drifting debris with their diet, and omnivorous green turtles were more attracted by artificial debris.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. A loggerhead turtle (L1410) pursuing a blue crab.
(a) Time-series data and (b) 3D path movement during a loggerhead turtle chasing a blue crab. Red and blue arrows indicate the time when the turtle encountered and captured the crab, respectively. Black arrow shows the direction of the movement. (c) A picture of a blue crab eaten by the loggerhead turtle.
Figure 2
Figure 2. A loggerhead turtle (L1410) feeds on gooseneck barnacles on a Styrofoam buoy.
(a) A picture when the turtle encounter the buoy at 09:05 on August 18, 2014. (b) Twenty-two minutes later, the turtle consumed almost all of the barnacles.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Time-series data and horizontal movements during feeding events.
A green turtle (G1454) fed on a jellyfish (a,b) and ingested a plastic bag (c,d). Black arrows indicate the moment of capture/ingest.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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