Cole Grannan

Annotated Bibliography

Romero Mosquera, Marcela. "Banning plastic straws: the beginning of the war against

plastics." Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ) 9.1 (2019): 1.

This scholarly article is about plastic straws and how plastic can harm the environment. There

are details about how plastic reaches the ocean. Alternatives to plastic straws are also analyzed.

Specifically, section 2. Titled “Issues Produced by Single-Use Plastic Straws” will be helpful to

me because it goes into detail of how plastic straws are bad for marine life. There are some

examples of how marine life are harmed by plastic straws and general but also some examples

with sea turtles specifically. This article is good because it explains that there was a graphic

video that went viral on social media of a straw being removed from a turtle’s nose. There are

also lots of numbers and statistics, giving me good evidence for my argument. This is something

that some other articles might not have. This is a credible source that I found on google scholar

and the author is evidently trustworthy as well.

Galloway, Tamara, and Ceri Lewis. "Marine microplastics." Current Biology 27.11 (2017):

R445-R446.

This article examines microplastics and how they affect marine life. It explains what

microplastics are, and the threats they pose. It will be useful to me because I can use what it says
about how microplastics can potentially attract other contaminants to organisms due to their

hydrophobic nature. I will relate this to sea turtles and argue how this can be potentially

dangerous for them. It is also good because there is not a lot of research done on the effects of

microplastics in larger marine animals. So, arguing this will be one way that I am contributing

something new to the research question. This is a scholarly, trustworthy source that I found

through Google Scholar.

“Why Are Plastic Straws So Bad for Sea Turtles?” Greens Steel, Greens Steel, 19 Aug. 2020,

https://greenssteel.com/blogs/news/why-are-plastic-straws-so-bad-for-sea-turtles. Accessed 26

June 2022. 

This blog is associated with a company who advocates for the environment and marine life. Like

the other articles, it explains how plastic straws harm sea turtles. It also explains how to make a

change. However, unlike the other articles it has explains that plastic straws can also be of

danger to new turtle hatchlings. It says that baby turtles nest in beds of seaweed and spend the

first years of their life there. Microplastics get in the seaweed beds and so the baby sea turtles

ingest them, and their stomachs fill up with plastic. Turtle hatchlings also can get trapped in the

seaweed that is littered with microplastics leading them to suffocate. This information will help

me in my overall argument.
Weintraub, Karen. “Just a Few Pieces of Plastic Can Kill Sea Turtles.” The New York Times, The

New York Times, 13 Sept. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/13/science/sea-turtles-

plastic.html. 

The article is like all the other articles. However, there is different examples than the other

articles that will help me add more key points to my argument. Specifically, where the article

talks about how new studies show that just ingesting 14 pieces of plastic can significantly

increase a turtle’s risk of death. I can directly relate this to plastic straws. It also explains that

turtles’ anatomy doesn’t allow them to regurgitate so whatever they ingest either passes through

their gut or gets stuck. Which obviously harms them. This article is credible, as it is in the New

York Times; a widely known newspaper source.

Panageas, A. (2019). The Environmental Impact of Straws and Other Plastics. D.U.Quark, 3 (2).

Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/ duquark/vol3/iss2/10

This article explains the clearly visible and less obvious effects that plastic has on marine life. It

also explains how plastic ends up getting digested by the marine life. There are toxic chemicals

that are released when plastics start to break down and these can cause many negative effects to

aquatic animals. This source is specifically helpful to me because it includes many examples of

how plastic straws are harmful to the environment and ocean. There are examples of how straws
cause harm to turtles which as well will help me in my argument. The source is a scholarly,

credible source and I know this because I located it using Google Scholar.

Houck, Brenna. “Why the World Is Hating on Plastic Straws Right Now.” Eater, Eater, 12 July

2018, https://www.eater.com/2018/7/12/17555880/plastic-straws-environment-pollution-banned-

alternatives-ocean-sea-turtle-viral-video. 

This news article is about plastic straws and why they are receiving hate. Some information that I

will be able to use in my paper is present in this article. It states that 500 million disposable

straws are used by Americans daily. It also states that plastic straws were ranked seventh most

common piece of trash collected on global beaches by cleanup crews associated with the Ocean

Conservancy. I will use this information to explain how much of a problem plastic straws are. I

will relate those statistics to how straws reach the ocean after being littered on the beach.

Eventually hurting marine ecosystems and sea turtles. I believe this source is credible because it

comes from a secure news website.