Sul, I. D., Santos, I. R., Friedrich, A. C., Matthiensen, A., & Fillmann, G. (2011). Plastic pollution at a sea turtle conservation area in NE brazil: Contrasting developed and undeveloped beaches. Estuaries and Coasts, 34(4), 814-823. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12237-011-9392-8
The journal article that I found is titles, “Plastic Pollution at a Sea Turtle Conservation Area in NE Brazil: Contrasting Developed and Undeveloped Beaches,” by Juliana Assunção Ivar do Sul & Isaac R. Santos & Ana Cláudia Friedrich & Alexandre Matthiensen & Gilberto Fillmann. This article is about how much beach debris were on developed and undeveloped sea turtle nesting beaches in Brazil. Their prediction was that the plastic would be a major problem in coastal environments such as Brazil. Their final and study question / hypothesis was that developed beaches are more contaminated by marine debris in the summer season and the types of items are directly related to local sources, such as tourism, and undeveloped beaches are less contaminated and the types of items are related to non-local sources, such as fishing and domestic activities. They needed to collect the amount of pollution found on both types of beaches in order to compare them. First they used region-wide sampling to characterize marine debris distribution patterns in the area. Their next step was targeted sampling on the beaches. After all their data was collected, they analyzed with tables and graphs to compare the pollution sources and to figure out which type of beach contained the higher amount of area covered in pollution. Their final results was that domestic and fishing activities were accounted for 70% of debris on undeveloped beaches, and tourism activities accounted for 70% of debris on developed beaches. I found this article helpful because I was planning on research numerous beaches and how much trash is on them. Then figure out how many animals were affected by the pollution. I wish this journal article went into further detail about how the debris affected the turtles.