Alex Smith JELLYFISH OR PLASTIC BAG a deadly

Alex Smith JELLYFISH OR PLASTIC BAG? a deadly guessing game http: //www. deviantart. com/tag/plasticbag http: //a-z-animals. com/animals/jellyfish/

BACKGROUND RESEARCH • leatherbacks primary food source is jellyfish • leatherbacks are nearsighted • previous research looked at differentiation of objects by sea turtles based on luminance, flexibility and translucency • turtles tend to prefer items that are less bright, more flexible, and more translucent • rely primarily on visual cues when foraging, even when presented with chemical cues as well https: //prezi. com/kulrjnnbmhbg/apes-endangered-project-leatherbacksea-turtles/

BACKGROUND RESEARCH CONT’D • plastic can cause intestinal compaction or tearing, digestive suppression, and exposure to chemical toxicants • juvenile turtles have been shown to have more than a third of their diet as plastic debris • americans use 100 million plastic bags each year and only 0. 6% are recycled

BACKGROUND RESEARCH CONT’D • sea turtle cornea refractive index is same as the refractive index of seawater • see color in shorter wavelengths • have the visual acuity of other benthic shallow water marine species • leatherbacks have more open peripherals than the more shallow water species, like loggerheads and greens

NULL HYPOTHESIS There will be no significant difference between light readings of jellyfish and plastic bags after light has passed through and reflected off of the object. http: //caribbeanlivingblog. com/2013/07/02/she-sells-sea-turtle-shells-part-1/

METHODS • Collect cannonball jellyfish (Stomolophus meleagris), plastic bags, and balloons from the beach • Freeze jellyfish to preserve them • Build the light apparatus (closed light system so only light comes from or through test objects) • Place object over the plexiglass hole in the bottom of the bucket and shine a light through it • Read the amount of light (lux) coming through with a light meter in the top

METHODS CONT’D • Place PVC pipe in the top of the bucket and shine a light through the pipe into the bucket, reflecting the light off of the object • Take a light reading of the albedo of the test object with the light meter. • Use unpaired T-tests to test for a significant difference between jellyfish and bags/balloons

THE LIGHT CONTAINMENT APPARATUS Transmittance This isolated the light that shone through and off of the objects for the light meter measurements. Luminance/Reflectivity

RESULTS (ALL BAGS) • Transmittance • Luminance analysis—statistically NOT statistically significant • P<0. 0001 • P=0. 1574 • degrees of freedom=24 • std error=19. 915 • std error=0. 104

RESULTS (BHI BAGS) • • Luminance analysis Transmittance —statistically analysis—statistically significant • P<0. 0001 • P=0. 0014 • degrees of freedom=20 • std error=9. 676 • std error=0. 072

RESULTS (OTHER BAGS) • Transmittance • Luminance analysis—statistically NOT statistically significant • P=0. 0049 • P=0. 6214 • degrees of freedom=16 • std error=16. 859 • std error=0. 152

RESULTS (BALLOONS) • • Luminance analysis Transmittance —statistically analysis—statistically significant • P=0. 0025 • P=0. 0026 • degrees of freedom=17 • std error=32. 109 • std error=0. 127

DISCUSSION • The transmittance readings showed that jellyfish and the pollution let in different amounts of light (were not similar) • The luminance readings for bags from BHI and for balloons were very different • The luminance readings for all bags and the bags that were not from BHI are similar to jellyfish readings https: //prezi. com/dmdqpyt_eupt/polymers-and-the-environment/

CONCLUSION Luminance is the most important reading because of how turtles forage. Bald Head Island bags may be of least concern compared to other plastic bags. Balloons are not a large concern. Overall plastic bags are still a concern for turtle conservation. The experiment did not provide enough evidence or test enough variables to say that bags are easily mistaken or not conclusively.

http: //www. wunderground. com/wximage/viewsingleimage. html? mode=singleimage&handle=Willow 13&number=665 Plastic bags don’t taste good!

WORKS CITED • Carr, A. (1980). Some Problems of Sea Turtle Ecology. American Zoology, 20, 489 -498. • Rudloe, J. (1979). Time of the Turtle. New York, NY: Truman Talley Books. • Schuyler, Q. , Wilcox, C. , et al. (2014). Mistaken Identity? Visual similarity of marine debris to natural prey items of sea turtles. BMC Ecology, 14(14). • Donnelly, M. (2009). Plastics-at-Sea Catastrophe. Sea Turtle Conservancy Newsletter: Velador. (4). • Bartol, S. M. and Musick, J. A. (2003). The Biology of Sea Turtles, Vol. 2. London: CRC Press. • Young, M. , Salmon, M. , et al. (2012). Visual Wavelength discrimination by the loggerhead turtle, Caretta caretta. The Biological Bulletin, 222 (1).