We’ve all seen footage or images of plastics suffocating our oceans and marine life, but the tragic effects of this were seen first hand by two beach-goers on the NSW South Coast . Katrina Mitchell was walking near Palm Beach, Sanctuary Point on Sunday, when her partner spotted a sea turtle floating three feet ahead in the water.  “God knows how old it was because it was huge, more than a metre in length,” she said.  “Unfortunately it was already deceased when we reached it.”  After pulling it to the sand, Katrina and her partner realised the turtle was wrapped up in fishing line.  “I’ve seen other animals washed up after getting plastic stuck around it, but definitely never a turtle,” she said.  While all marine life is affected by plastics, new research has indicated sea turtles are at particular risk of harm.  CSIRO analysis of nearly 1000 turtles found dead and washed up on beaches around Australia showed the more plastic a turtle consumes, the greater the likelihood that it was killed by that plastic.  Previously, it was unclear as to whether the plastic in our oceans was actually killing sea turtles, or whether they were simply ingesting it without significant harm. "We knew that turtles were consuming a lot of plastic, but we didn't know for certain whether that plastic actually caused the turtles' deaths, or whether the turtles just happened to have plastic in them when they died," principal research scientist with CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Dr Chris Wilcox said. "In other words, we wanted to know 'how much plastic is too much plastic?' for sea turtles." The scientists found once a turtle had 14 plastic items in its gut, there was a 50 per cent likelihood that it would cause death. However, that's not to say that a turtle won't die if they consume less than 14 pieces of plastic. "Even a single piece of plastic can kill a turtle," Lecturer in Animal Ecology at the University of the Sunshine Coast Dr Kathy Townsend said. "Some of the turtles we studied had eaten only one piece of plastic, which was enough to kill it. In one case, the gut was punctured, and in the other, the soft plastic clogged the gut." The research showed that a turtle had a 22 per cent chance of dying if it eats just one piece of plastic. Sea turtles were among the first animals recorded to be ingesting plastic debris, a phenomenon that occurs in every region of the world and in all seven marine turtle species. Globally, it is estimated that approximately 52 per cent of all sea turtles have eaten plastic. South Coast Register