FISH EAT MICROPLASTIC BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE PREY
Fish may be actively seeking out microplastic in the oceans as the tiny pieces looks similar to their natural prey, research suggests.
Plastic pollution is a BIG problem for our oceans nowaday. As results, over 50 species of fish have been found to consume plastic trash at sea, and the list is expanded as more research is done. The factors influencing the ingestion of microplastics by fish remain unclear despite their importance to a better understanding of the routes of microplastics through marine food webs.
According to the study, Amberstripe scads (Decapterus muroadsi), a common fish along the coast of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) have ingest microplastics, mainly blue polyethylene fragments that were similar in colour and size to blue copepod species consumed by the same fish. Amberstripe scads is a planktivorous fish, as a consequence of their feeding behaviour as visual predators, are directly exposed to floating microplastics. Despite scad have a preference for other colored microplastics, as orange and white, the proportion of blue microplastics in scad guts was higher than expected by their proportion in water samples.
This threat may be exacerbated in the clear oceanic waters of the subtropical gyres, where anthropogenic litter accumulates in great quantity. Microplastics may induce deleterious effects to the organisms that ingested them. Specifically, the shape of a particle may reflect its potential to cause harm.
Photo: Examples of blue microplastics in Amberstripe scads digestive tracts, and copepod prey in superficial water along the coast of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Scale bars represent 0.5 mm.
Photo: Amberstripe scads by Paddy Ryan.
Reference (Open Access): Ory et al., 2017 Amberstripe scad Decapterus muroadsi (Carangidae) fish ingest blue microplastics resembling their copepod prey along the coast of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the South Pacific subtropical gyre. Science of the Total Environment