The marine environment is no longer the ideal place for many aquatic animals. Most of the ocean water is a subtle mix of unwanted materials, including plastic. A recent study reveals that a minimal amount of plastic can prove fatal for marine life. For instance, less than three sugar cubes can be fatal to birds like Atlantic puffins. According to researcher Erin Murphy, an ocean plastic researcher at the Ocean Conservancy, this was already below the lowest threshold they expected
The paper published by The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences saw researchers analyze necropsies from over 10,000 animals in a bid to model how different types of plastic can affect ocean life, and at what point the dose of plastic turns fatal.
Scientists are resolute to reduce the amount of plastics by cleaning up, reducing, or recycling.
Scientists, by and large, are compiling the necropsy results from dozens of studies and available database resources from all around the globe. Specifically, the data have confirmed the relation between the fatality of marine animals and plastic consumption.
Most of the animals had either washed up on beaches or were unintentionally caught.
Researchers then analyzed how the amount of plastic consumed, in terms of both the number of pieces and the volume relative to the animal’s digestive tract, has affected the likelihood of death.
The study also included the record of how different types of plastic have affected other types of animals. For instance, many seabirds were particularly affected by rubber and hard plastics.
“One whale had the equivalent of a three-gallon bucket of plastic inside it,” Murphy said.
Fifty percent of the marine animals studied were from species designated as threatened, vulnerable, or endangered.
Plastic: a serious threat to survival
Researchers and study authors anticipate that their work can positively affect improving or creating monitoring programs to curtail plastic pollution, particularly in oceans
The research “helps us understand materials that might be particularly dangerous that we may want to address through policy,” Murphy said, pointing to balloons or plastic bags.
According to a study, which was particularly centered on deaths that occurred swiftly after injury to the GI tract, it is just one piece of a broader problem. The research did not include chronic effects of plastic chemicals or risks of getting tangled, which is another serious hazard.
An oceanography professor at the Sea Education Association, Kara Lavender-Law, called the study “remarkable” and “a really systematic, careful look at the data that exists” to better understand and predict risk.
According to a 2019 report, approximately six million tonnes of plastic entered major water bodies, including rivers, lakes, and oceans. Recent research has highlighted the widespread presence of microplastics at an alarming rate, from the deepest ocean trenches to inside the human body.
Lavender-Law stated that the study underscores how plastic pollution remains unresolved and a multi-layered issue. She also added that while growing concern over micro- and nanoplastics, especially for human health, is justified, the danger posed by larger plastic debris to marine animals is still very real.
