Plastic ingestion by a Leatherback turtle Dermochelys coriacea from the Azores (NE Atlantic)

Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Science Ltd.Plastic debris occur in considerable quantities throughout the worlds oceans (Dufault and Whitehead, 1994). These items may impact many marine species such as sea turtles, birds and mammals (Wilber, 1987; Laist, 1997). Ingestion of plastic debris is known from at least 27 species of cetaceans (Laist, 1997, Baird and Hooker, in press), seabirds (Spear et al., 1995) and sea-turtles (Bjorndal et al., 1994). Here we report on a case of plastic ingestion by an adult female of the leatherback sea-turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, that was accidentally caught off the southern coast of Terceira island (Azores). […