In its blue basin two meters in diameter, it seems almost cramped. The Frédériquette tortoise visibly wants to swim, frequently sticking its head out of the water and flicking its fins. “She’s fine now”rejoices Stéphane Ciccione, the director of Kélonia, an aquarium dedicated to sea turtles in Saint-Leu, on the west coast of Reunion Island.
This loggerhead, with its distinctive orange shell, is recovering in the aquarium’s turtle hospital following surgery to remove a fish hook that was ensnared deep in its throat. Frédériquette was taken in charge on September 17, 2022 after being accidentally caught between Reunion and Madagascar by a tuna and swordfish fisherman using longlines, these lines several kilometers long. The turtle will stay in the aquarium for the necessary time, before being released into the turquoise blue lagoon located just opposite.
Since 2007, Kélonia has been working in partnership with longliners to bring these pelagic turtles ashore when they get caught on a line. He recovers more than twenty each year, as well as some coastal turtles victims of collisions with boats. Fifteen years of caring for this protected marine species have made it possible to realize how much this part of the Indian Ocean was also affected by plastic pollution.
Stoppers, packaging, ropes
Floating litter poses a danger to marine ecosystems and biodiversity as well as a threat to human health by contaminating the entire food chain. Unlike the North Pacific subtropical gyre, where the accumulation of litter is well documented, the areas of plastic concentrations in the Indian Ocean are less known. But the studies carried out in particular on loggerhead turtles as well as on seabirds make it possible to begin to understand the circulation of marine litter and its extent in this part of the globe.
In Kélonia, every morning, the healers collect in the basins the pieces spat out or defecated by the injured turtles which have just arrived. Frédériquette had ingested 131 pieces of plastic. That is a total of 46 grams. In the inventory, stored in a tray: a cork, packaging, ropes, debris from a container and computer connections. “It’s edifying, the content of turtle droppings, when they should only spit out squid beaksnotes Stéphane Ciccione. We recover everything: a toy soldier, a rhinoceros figurine, a fork, a toothbrush… We only see macroplastics. But there are just as many microplastics which are too small to be found. » Some turtles, like Amandine, do not survive such a diet. This had been found several months ago with a record of 428 particles.
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