Plastic bags kill croc found in Australian tourist zone

Tag : plastic
Plastic bags kill croc found in Australian tourist zone
7 hours ago
SYDNEY (AFP) — A crocodile which was captured after menacingtourist beaches near Australia's World Heritage-listed GreatBarrier Reef has died from eating too many plastic bags, officialssaid.
Queensland's Environmental Protection Agency announced Sunday thatthe crocodile died a day after it was captured near MagneticIsland, close to the world famous coral reef which runs alongAustralia's northeastern coast.
The agency said 25 plastic shopping and garbage bags had been foundinside the animal, along with a plastic wine cooler bag and arubber float.
"Because the material had compacted solidly in its stomach it wasunable to digest food," it said in a statement, adding that noanimal would have survived with that much plastic compressed intoits gut.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said it was surprisedthat the 3.5 metre (11.5 foot) crocodile had swallowed enoughplastic bags, apparently over a long period of time, to kill it.
"I didn't know it was a problem for crocodiles specifically, youtend to hear it more as a problem for turtles," the authority'schairman Russell Reicheldt told the Australian BroadcastingCorporation on Monday.
"But it... reinforces our general view that the amount of marinedebris in the ocean is too much and it's damaging wildlife."
The crocodile was originally transferred from remote Cape York,near the northernmost point of Australia's east coast, some 1,000kilometres south to near the populated area of Townsville in asatellite tracking programme.
But the giant reptile swam north and was seen around MagneticIsland, a tourist haven, where local dive operators complained itdrove away business.
The relocation programme is now under review.