Forty per cent of the small turtles travelling through Moreton bay were recently found to have consumed plastics and more than two-thirds of the endangered loggerhead turtle, too. PHOTO: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Queensland – said to be Australia’s dirtiest state (discarded rubbish recorded at levels almost 40 per cent above the national average). Also home to Moreton Bay, the only place in the country where dugongs gather in herds and which has a significant population of the endangered loggerhead sea turtle. Over celebrating its coastal flora and fauna on World Oceans Day, the state and its leaders found themselves mulling a ban on single-use plastic in the area. Here’s why.

A recent survey by the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection found 40 per cent of small turtles passing through the bay had eaten plastics. Seventy per cent of the endangered small loggerheads had also ingested plastic debris. Moreton Bay Marine Park has six of the world’s seven turtle species; the leatherback turtle, the loggerhead turtle, the flatback turtle, the Pacific ridley turtle, the green turtle and the hawksbill turtle. Only Kemp’s ridley turtle is not found in Moreton Bay Marine Park.

With turtles ingesting plastic debris – mistaking it for food – and chewing on plastic bearings of fishing lines, the toll on marine life due to pollution is one that cannot be ignored. This is discounting the threats to marine life posed by vehicular movement in the bay. In addition to the ban, there are plans to take the cash for containers route, too. While the restriction on use of plastic is keeping with the times, the state machinery first needs to have the final word on the argument about it raising the cost of living.

For turtle’s sake, let’s get over plastic.