Photo source: ©© CheshireCat@TO
Whether plastics present a unanimously accepted and proven toxic challenge to marine life, and subsequently to humans, is one of the biggest challenges facing scientists right now.
All sea creatures, from the largest to the microscopic organisms are, at one point or another, swallowing the seawater soup instilled with toxic chemicals from plastic decomposition. Much of ocean’s life is in the microscopic size range and zooplankton is the base of the food chain. As environmentalists remind the world’s population: “…We are eating fish that have eaten other fish, which have eaten toxin-saturated plastics…” Captions: © SAF — Coastal Care
Excerpts;
A search of hundreds of beaches across the UK has found almost three-quarters of them are littered with tiny plastic pellets.
The lentil-size pellets known as “nurdles” are used as a raw material by industry to make new plastic products.
But searches of 279 shorelines from Shetland to Scilly revealed that 205 (73%) contained pellets…
Read Full Article; Guardian UK (02-16-2017)
Microbeads Entering Our Water Daily Could Cover 300 Tennis Courts; Huffington Green (07-18-2015)
The Ocean Is Contaminated by Trillions More Pieces of Plastic Than Thought, IOP Science (12-08-2015)
This new study suggests there are 15 to 51 trillion micro plastic particles (those less than 200 millimeters in size) in the world’s oceans, weighing between 93 and 236,000 metric tons. This is about seven times more than scientists had previously estimated…
Video captures moment plastic enters food chain, BBC News (03-11-2017)
A scientist has filmed the moment plastic microfibre is ingested by plankton, illustrating how the material is affecting life beneath the waves. The footage shows one way that plastic waste could be entering the marine and global food chain…
People may be breathing in microplastics, health expert warns; Guardian UK (05-10-2016)
People could be breathing in microparticles of plastic, according to a leading environmental health expert, with as yet unknown consequences on health…
