Plastics 'poisoning world's seas'

[Matt Rogers]

Some of the stuff they are finding is thinner than human hair.

Microscopic particles of plastic could be poisoning the oceans, according to a British team of researchers.

They report that small plastic pellets called "mermaids' tears", which are the result of industry and domestic waste, have spread across the world's seas.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Plastics 'poisoning world's seas'

[Jason McKenzie]

youch. So really what isn't adversely effecting the oceans

Man we suck

J

[euthyphro]

"300,000 items of plastic per sq km of sea surface, and 100,000 per sq km of seabed."

" They looked at the barnacle, the lugworm and the common amphipod or sand-hopper, and found that all three readily ingested plastic as they fed along the seabed."

"These creatures are eaten by others along food chain," Dr Thompson explained. "It seems an inevitable consequence that it will pass along the food chain. There is the possibility that chemicals could be transferred from plastics to marine organisms."

" Whatever the findings eventually show, there is little that can be done now to deal with the vast quantities of plastic already in our oceans. It will be there for decades to come. "


Who says that the world is too big for humans to impact?