Sea turtles think old ocean plastic smells delicious
When algae and microbes accumulate on ocean plastic, the odors these tiny creatures create smells like food to sea turtles. (Credit: Joseph Pfaller/)Smells tasty—that might be what sea turtles are thinking when they chow down on sea debris like discarded fishing gear, plastic bags, and cigarette filters. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that ocean plastics that have been colonized by algae and other microscopic ocean life give off odors similar to those given off by food that sea turtles eat. In response, the animals end up eating a whole lot of it. Their work was published this week in the journal Cell Biology. Plastic doesn’t typically have a strong odor when we encounter it, often in the form of plastic bags or six-pack plastic rings. But the material becomes home to some odorous sea life once it spends time in the ocean. Algae...