Editing Sea turtle (section)

==== Marine debris ====
Another danger to sea turtles comes from [[marine debris]], especially plastics, such as in the [[Great Pacific Garbage Patch]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.seeturtles.org/ocean-plastic|title=Ocean Plastic|website=SEE Turtles|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-20}}</ref> which may be mistaken for jellyfish, and [[Ghost net|abandoned fishing nets]] in which they can become entangled.

Sea turtles in all types are being endangered by the way humans use plastic. Recycling is known of and people recycle but not everyone does. The amount of plastic in the oceans and beaches is growing every day. The littering<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.seeturtles.org/ocean-plastic|title=Ocean Plastic|website=SEE Turtles|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-12}}</ref> of plastic is 80% of the amount.

When turtles hatch from their eggs on the beach, they are already endangered with plastic. Turtles have to find the ocean by themselves and on their journey from land to sea, they encounter a lot of plastic. Some even get trapped in the plastic and die from lack of resources and from the sun being too hot.

Sea turtles eat plastic bags<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/what-do-sea-turtles-eat-unfortunately-plastic-bags|title=What do sea turtles eat? Unfortunately, plastic bags.|website=World Wildlife Fund|language=en|access-date=2019-12-12}}</ref> because they confuse them with their actual diet, jellyfish, algae and other components. The consumption of plastic is different for every breed of sea turtle, but when they ingest the plastic, it can clog their intestines and cause internal bleeding which will eventually kill them.

In 2015, an olive ridley sea turtle was found with a plastic drinking straw lodged inside its nose.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kirkpatrick |first1=Nick |title=Sea turtle trauma: Video shows rescuers extracting plastic straw from deep in nostril |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/17/researchers-save-a-sea-turtle-from-a-plastic-straw-in-this-traumatic-video/ |access-date=2 February 2020 |work=Huffington Post}}</ref> The video of [[Nathan J. Robinson (biologist)|Nathan J. Robinson]] has helped raise considerable awareness about the threat posed by [[plastic pollution]] to sea turtles.

The research into turtle consumption of plastic is growing. A laboratory of Exeter<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/05/world/microplastic-pollution-turtles-study-intl-scli/index.html|title=Microplastics found in gut of every sea turtle in new study|author=Matthew Robinson|website=CNN| date=5 December 2018 |access-date=2019-12-12}}</ref> and Plymouth Marine tested 102 turtles and found plastic in every one of their stomachs. The researchers found more than 800 pieces of plastic in those 102 turtles. That was 20 times more than what was found in the last research. Those researchers stated that the most common things found were cigarette buds, tire, plastic in many forms and fishing material.

The chemicals in the plastic that sea life eats damages their internal organs and can also clog their airway. The chemicals in the plastic that they eat is also a leading cause of the death of the turtles. If the turtles are close to laying eggs, the chemicals that they ingested from the plastic can seep into their eggs and affect their offspring. It is unlikely for the baby sea turtles to survive with those chemicals in their system.

There is a large quantity of plastic in the ocean, 80% of which comes from landfills; the ratio of plankton to plastic in the ocean is one to six. The [[Great Pacific Garbage Patch]] is a swirl of garbage in the Pacific Ocean that is {{convert|20|ft|m|0|order=flip|abbr=on}} deep and contains 3.5 million tons of garbage. This is also known as the "plastic island".