We all know that the global plastic pollution problem is something that needs addressing. Recently, we posted an article about how microplastics were found in the guts of sea turtles around the world. Well, another recent study was just published by the Royal Society Open Science Journal in which they caught and dissected deep-sea creatures from six locations deeper than 6,000 feet in the Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest Pacific. What they found is that 72% of the total samples contained plastic fibers and plastic fragments in their guts. This is kind of shocking; one would think at the very deep parts of the ocean, there wouldn't be plastic pollution, but there is. Alan Jamieson, one of the marine biologists who led the research spoke on the implications of these plastic fibers found in these tiny amphipods.
"Since they sit at the bottom of the trench food webs, their catholic appetite can doom entire ecosystems. 'They're like bags of peanuts,' Jamieson says. 'Everything else eats amphipods — shrimp, fish — and they’ll end up consuming plastics, too. And when the fish die, they get consumed by amphipods, and it goes round and round in circles.'"
This is a dangerous cycle that is directly caused by years and years of plastic pollution from humans. We must do our part to prevent future pollution and think of new and innovative methods to clean our oceans! To read the full study click HERE.
Leave a comment