Microplastics in the ocean are moving up the food chain

Microplastics in the ocean are moving up the food chain

Posted on July 12, 2015 by DrRossH in Plastic & Wildlife

Study: Microplastics in the ocean are moving up the food chain — Earth Changes — Sott.net.

Plastic fibres and particles in West Coast waters are being consumed and passed up the food chain by tiny marine creatures that apparently mistake them for food, according to a new study from the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre.

Researcher Peter Ross and his colleagues found plastic litter in the digestive systems of two key species of plankton that are eaten in large numbers by salmon and baleen whales.

Adult salmon returning to the Strait of Georgia may be consuming up to 91 plastic particles a day by eating plankton, and juveniles leaving fresh water up to seven particles a day, while a humpback whale could ingest more than 300,000 particles a day, according to the researchers’ estimates.