TABLE 1 |.
Microplastics presence in the gastrointestinal tract of 7 species of sea turtles.
| Location | Species | n | No of Microplastics | Size | Shape | Color | Polymer type | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||||
| Pacific Ocean (Cairns) | Chelonia mydas | 2 | 3.5 microplastics/turtle | Particles in juvenile ranged from 0.45 to 2.51 mm. Particle in the adult female ranged from 0.76 to 2.95 mm | Particles and a microfilm (in adult female) | Out of 7 items, 3 clear particles, 1 clear film, 1 dark green particle, 1 black particle and 1 white particle | EAA, PVA, a particle composed of cotton: Olefin: PES and one mixed yarn synthetic fabriccomposed of cotton: Olefin: PES and one mixed yarn synthetic fabric | Caron et al. (2018) |
| Pacific Ocean (Queensland) | Chelonia mydas | 7 | 11 particles/turtlea | Average fiber size 2.85 ± 0.23 mm. | Fibres 64.8%, fragments 20.2% and microbead 4.8% | Blue 44.9%, black 39.1%, red 8.6% and clear 2.9% | Elastomers 3.4% (e.g., EPDM rubber), synthetic regenerated synthetic regenerated CL fibres 68.9%, PE, EP, PET, PAM 27.7% | Duncan et al. (2019) |
| Caretta caretta | 3 | 6 particles/turtlea | Fragment and bead average diameter 0.26 ± 0.01 mm | |||||
| Natator depressus | 4 | 6 particles/turtlea | ||||||
| Eretmochelys imbacata | 1 | 5 particles/turtlea | ||||||
| Lepidochelys olivacea | 1 | 4 particles/turtlea | ||||||
| Mediterranean Sea (Northern Cyprus) | Chelonia mydas | 34 | 10 particles/turtlea | Average fiber size 1.40 ± 0.54 mm (mean ± S.E). Fragment and bead average diameter 0.07 ± 0.01 mm | Fibres 85.3%, Fragments 14.7% | Blue 34.4%, black 31.3%, red 18.2% and clear 9.9% | Elastomers 61.2% (e.g., EPDM rubber), woven synthetics 4.9%, synthetic regenerated CL fibres 5.8% and PE, EP, PET, PAM (total 20.7%) | Duncan et al. (2019) |
| Caretta caretta | 22 | 12.5 particles/turtlea | ||||||
| Atlantic Ocean (North Carolina) | Chelonia mydas | 10 | 5 particles/turtlea | Average fiber size 2.87 ± 0.20 mm. | Fibres 77.1% Fragments 22.9% | Blue 36.3%, black 43.7%, red 17.5% and clear 2.5% | Synthetic regenerated CL fibres 63.2%, PE, EP, PET and PAM (total 36.8%) | Duncan et al. (2019) |
| Caretta caretta | 8 | 2.5 particles/turtlea | Fragment and bead average diameter 0.31 ± 0.04 mm | |||||
| Lepidochelys kempii | 10 | 3 particles/turtlea | ||||||
| Dermochelys coriacea | 2 | 4 particles/turtlea | ||||||
| Atlantic Ocean (Azores islands) | Caretta caretta | 24 | 95 microplastics total in 58% of the turtles. 3.95 items/turtle | 1–5 mm | Fragments (87%), sheets (8%) and pellets (5%) | Blue, green, and white most predominant | PE (60%), PP (20%) and different polymer mixtures (12%)^ | Pham et al. (2017) |
| Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean (Sourthern Cape) | Caretta caretta | 16 | Fragments 12.2 ± 14.9/turtle (range 0–50). Pellets 0.6 ± 1.3/turtle (range 0–5). In total 229 fragment and 10 pellets | Average fragment 3.0 ± 1.4 × 1.0 ± 0.5 mm and average pellet size 3.9 ± 0.5 × 3.4 ± 0.8 × 1.4 ± 0.7 mm | Among all items: Fragments 76%. Pellets 3% | Fragments mostly white/cream, clear or blue/purple and pellets mostly black/grey/brown, white/cream and clear | NA | Ryan et al. (2016) |
a
Extrapolated from Figure 2 in Duncan et al., 2019;
^
Authors took into account all the items (macro, meso and microplastics) found; Abbreviations: polyethylene acrylic acid EAA, polyvinyl acrylic PVA Polyethylene PE, Ethylene propylene EP, Polyester PES, Polyacrylamide PAM, Polypropylene PP, Polystyrene PS, Polyamide (nylon) PA, Cellulose CL.