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ALMOST THREE QUARTERS of 233 deep water fish from the Northwest Atlantic Ocean studied by researchers from NUI Galway have ingested plastic particles.
It’s one of the highest reported frequencies of microplastic occurrence in fish around the globe.
As part of the study the NUI Galway scientists participated in a transatlantic crossing on-board the Marine Institute’s Celtic Explorer research vessel.
During this research cruise they studied dead deep sea fish from midwater trawls in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. The fish were taken from a depth of up to 600 metres using large fishing nets.
The fish ranged in size from smaller species like the Glacier Lantern, measuring at 3.5 centimetres, to the largest species, the Stout Sawpalate (59 centimetres).
Upon return to Galway, the fish were inspected for microplastics in their stomach contents.
“Deep water fish migrate to the surface at night to feed on plankton and this is likely when they are exposed to the microplastics,” Alina Wieczorek, lead author of the study, said.
“One of the inspected Spotted Lanternfish, which was 4.5 centimetres in size, had 13 microplastics extracted from its stomach contents.
“The identified microplastics were mostly fibres, commonly blue and black in colour. Some only measured 50 microns in length.
In total, 233 fish were examined with 73% of them having microplastics in their stomachs, making it one of the highest reported frequencies of microplastic occurrence in fish worldwide.
Microplastics are small plastic fragments that commonly originate from the breakdown of larger plastic items entering our oceans.
Other sources may be wastewater effluents carrying plastic fibres from clothing and microbeads from personal care products. Due to their low density, most of these microplastics float at the sea surface.
Previous studies have shown that microplastics can be ingested by numerous marine animals from zooplankton, to worms and fish. The ingestion of microplastics by these animals may cause internal physical damage, inflammation of intestines, reduced feeding and other effects, according to the study’s authors.
They add:
However, what is also of concern is that many of these ingested microplastics have associated additives, such as colourants and flame retardants that are added to plastics during production process, and/or pollutants that are adsorbed onto the microplastics from the sea. There is now evidence that some of these toxins on the microplastics can be transferred to animals that eat them with potential harmful effects.
The study is published in the latest edition of Frontiers in Marine Science.
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Sad as this is, will it inspire large manufacturers to use non-plastic forms of packaging or large supermarkets to boycott them!?
Probably not.
By all means try to reduce your personal use of plastic, but until the large manufacturers and supermarkets get on board with this, you won’t see a major change in plastic output!
@Conor Crowther: stuff like fruit &veg could be just sold loose &paper bags used for weighing them. that would get rid of loads of plastic overnight
Why are cucumbers always sold in shrink wrap?!
@Griff: A wrapped cucumber lasts more than three times as long as an unwrapped one. It will also lose just 1.5 per cent of its weight through evaporation after 14 days, compared with 3.5 per cent in just three days for an exposed cucumber.
@Fay Moynihan: You know your cucumbers.
@Fay Moynihan: You are a font of information.
@Griff: I did a study on them back in school.
@Griff: Because people don’t wash their hands and people don’t wash their fruit or vegetables…
@Fay Moynihan: you’re mad for them. ;)
Time to return to glass. Between the harm plastic does to humans in the form of BPA from direct use of plastic bottles, to what it is doing to our oceans and marine life, it is time to demand that an end is put to the use of plastic bottles.
I wish the govt had outlined a plan to ban plastic bottles in Big Plan Ireland 2040.
@Conor Crowther is right…until the supermarkets and manufacturers are on board, plastic bottles will continue to pollute our bodies and our planet. We also need our govt on board.
The good old days of paper bags, bottles with a deposit, and local produce not requiring multiple plastic wrappings were best.
@gregory: We live in a throw away time and a time of lazy people, they would do the same to glass and paper as they do to plastic…
Just stop it at source and phase it out over a decade.
Refilling glass bottles is easy
Loose items can be purchased
Marketing has a lot to answer for
Nothing new in this story humans are cancer we just love to destroy.
Really sad to read this story ,marine life have existed long before us ,this needs government action now .micro beads should be banned immediately .plastic has become a real blight on our country roads ,our beaches ,We need to teach our children from a young age that plastic is bad for people ,bad for our envirment and bad for the fish we ultimately eat out of our waters .
Plastic pollution was first recognized to have a global distribution in the marine environment as early as 1975 (Rees and Pond, 1995). If you want to experience plastic pollution today, just walk outside. Create maps and open data on plastic pollution anywhere @ openlittermap.com – it’s like Pokémon go for tidy towns!
Anyone noticed how fish can taste like engine oil recently… Another pollutant?
Not dumping rubbish at beaches would be a small start
It’s shocking.. but I believe a lot of all this plastic is being dumped at sea ..
have your say