During summer 2020, I worked at Padre Island National Seashore examining marine debris ingestion by sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. To address this question and quantify ingestion, I dissected gastrointestinal tracts of 300 green sea turtles which stranded in 2007-2009 and 2019. Then, with assistance, I individually measured each piece of marine debris from these turtles and additionally measured previously dried debris from 600 green, loggerhead, and Kemp's ridley sea turtles which stranded between 1987-2002. Using this data, I explored temporal and spatial patterns in marine debris ingestion based on species and size. The summer work for this project was made possible by the Scientists-in-Parks program, a collaboration between the National Park Service and the Ecological Society of America.
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