Marine Debris Impacts on Wildlife

The CSIRO is working on a national marine debris project which has as its aim identifying the threat to wildlife. The plastic ingestion and entanglement of marine species, especially turtles is something we are familiar with on Stradbroke due to the valuable local work of UQ scientist Kathy Townsend.
The CSIRO is also looking at the impact on seabirds. The cause of the Shearwater strandings on Stradbroke beaches in 2010 and 2012 and possibly on earlier occasions, have been put down to the stresses of the long migratory process but this is now queried by the CSIRO researchers. Debris is now a suspect.
The massive amount of plastic and other debris washed up on Stradbroke beaches this year is an unavoidable indication of how much non-degradable rubbish the ocean creatures have to live with. ^
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