Video captures moment plastic enters food chain

[nitpicker]

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39217985

Video captures moment plastic enters food chain

By Mark Kinver
Environment reporter, BBC News

8 hours ago

From the section Science & Environment

A scientist has filmed the moment plastic microfibre is ingested by plankton, illustrating how the material is affecting life beneath the waves. The footage shows one way that waste plastic could be entering the marine and global food chain. An estimated 150 million tonnes of plastic "disappears" from the world's waste stream each year.

Waste plastic in the world's seas has been recognised by the United Nations as a major environmental problem.

"When I saw it, I thought that here was something, visually, to convey to the public the problem of plastic in the sea," said Richard Kirby, who recorded the footage. What intrigues me is that because the fibre has made a loop inside the animal's gut, you can actually see the consequences of something as small as the arrow worm consuming microplastic."

Dr Kirby, a self-styled Plankton Pundit, said that people were familiar with the idea of large marine animals - such as whales, seals and birds - swallowing plastic bags. "But here we have something where we actually see that at a tiny fibre has caused a blockage in something as small as a member of the plankton, stopping food progressing down. An arrow worm's gut extends for the whole length of its body, so this has stopped anything moving down the gut from about just below its head."
(snip)

[applegrove]

1. It is also in oysters and clams.

[democratisphere]

2. Humans are destroying themselves by destroying every living creature in the food chain.

The EPA is being gutted by anti-environmentalist Pruitt installed by drumpf. The world and environment have never been in greater danger.