Mistaken identity? Visual similarities of marine debris to natural prey items of sea turtles

Q A Schuyler; C Wilcox; Kathy A Townsend; B D Hardesty; N J Marshall

doi:10.1186/1472-6785-14-14

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Mistaken identity? Visual similarities of marine debris to natural prey items of sea turtles

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Mistaken identity? Visual similarities of marine debris to natural prey items of sea turtles

Q A Schuyler, C Wilcox, Kathy A Townsend, B D Hardesty and N J Marshall

BMC Ecology, Vol.14, 14

2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6785-14-14

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Abstract

chelonia mydas

chromatic space

eretmochelys imbricata

marine debris

Vorobyev-Osorio model

Background: There are two predominant hypotheses as to why animals ingest plastic: 1) they are opportunistic feeders, eating plastic when they encounter it, and 2) they eat plastic because it resembles prey items. To assess which hypothesis is most likely, we created a model sea turtle visual system and used it to analyse debris samples from beach surveys and from necropsied turtles. We investigated colour, contrast, and luminance of the debris items as they would appear to the turtle. We also incorporated measures of texture and translucency to determine which of the two hypotheses is more plausible as a driver of selectivity in green sea turtles.Results: Turtles preferred more flexible and translucent items to what was available in the environment, lending support to the hypothesis that they prefer debris that resembles prey, particularly jellyfish. They also ate fewer blue items, suggesting that such items may be less conspicuous against the background of open water where they forage.Conclusions: Using visual modelling we determined the characteristics that drive ingestion of marine debris by sea turtles, from the point of view of the turtles themselves. This technique can be utilized to determine debris preferences of other visual predators, and help to more effectively focus management or remediation actions. © 2014 Schuyler et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Details

Title: Mistaken identity? Visual similarities of marine debris to natural prey items of sea turtles
Authors: Q A Schuyler (Author) - University of Queensland
C Wilcox (Author) - CSIRO
Kathy A Townsend (Author) - University of Queensland
B D Hardesty (Author) - CSIRO
N J Marshall (Author) - University of Queensland
Publication details: BMC Ecology, Vol.14, 14; 7
Publisher: BioMed Central Ltd.
Date published: 2014
DOI: 10.1186/1472-6785-14-14
ISSN: 1472-6785
Copyright note: Copyright © 2014 Schuyler et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Organisation Unit: School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99450936902621
Output Type: Journal article

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Web Of Science research areas: Ecology

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