are fish eating plastic
Researchers towed a mesh net at 141 sites to monitor floating debris. They estimate the the total amount of floating plastic debris in open ocean at 7,000 to 35,000 tons-far less than the 1 million tonnes previously estimated. A lot of people are eating seafood all the time, and fish are eating plastic all the time, so I think that's a problem, says a marine toxicologist. iStockphoto hide caption. Perhaps the tiniest pieces are being eaten by small fish, with uncertain effects on their health, Cozar said in an email. Spanish researchers say they believe there could be as little as 7,000 tonnes of plastic in the sea-a lot less than the million tonnes they expected. While it's impossible to know whether any given fish you buy at the seafood counter has consumed this much plastic, Rochman's findings do have implications for human health, she notes. A lot of people are eating seafood all the time, and fish are eating plastic all the time, so I think that's a problem.. As a result, fish and wildlife are becoming intoxicated. Consequently the toxins from the plastics have entered the food chain, threatening human health. In the most polluted places in the ocean, the mass of plastic exceeds the amount of plankton six times over. There are different types of ways that plastic is dangerous for humans. Direct toxicity from plastics comes from lead, cadmium, and mercury. These toxins have also been found in many fish in the ocean, which is very dangerous for humans. Diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) contained in some plastics, is a toxic carcinogen. iStockphoto. A lot of people are eating seafood all the time, and fish are eating plastic all the time, so I think that's a problem, says a marine toxicologist. We've long known that the fish we eat are exposed to toxic chemicals in the rivers, bays and oceans they inhabit. The worse part is, these plastics don't biodegrade, so they brake up into tiny pieces that are consumed by fish and sea mammals. Plastic is killing more than 100,000 sea turtles and birds a year from ingestion and entanglement. Chemicals in plastics are released into the water as well as the atmosphere. Fish easily become contaminated from the chemicals in the water. This is a direct link of how plastic chemicals enter the food chain. See Earth Times for more on this. HOW THEY DID IT. The new estimate includes only floating debris, not plastic that may reside beneath the surface or on the ocean floor. esearchers towed a mesh net at 141 sites to monitor floating debris. Of the plastic pieces caught by the ship's net, most were less than about a fifth of an inch long. Some floating pieces start out small, like the microbeads found in some toothpastes and cosmetics or industrial pellets used to make plastic products.
Yes