Are microplastics messing with the ocean's grandest creatures?
Scientists are calling for more research into the effect of microplastics on large filter feeding sea creatures such as whales, sharks and rays
By Phoebe Braithwaite
Saturday 28 April 2018
In the Pacific Ocean, between California and Hawaii, 80,000 tonnes of plastic make up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: an expanse of ocean three times the size of Francer containing the highest concentration of plastic ever recorded – a concentration sixteen times higher than previously thought. From here, and from elsewhere, microplastics – bits of the stuff under 5mm in size – wash out into the the world’s oceans to be swallowed by fish, clogging up their digestive tracts, stunting their growth, killing them, and being passed up the food chain.
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/big-blue-whale-plastic-pollution
