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Video: Saltwater fish get used to eating plastic
2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55
Fish in the oceans have adapted from an early age to eat plastic waste, much like children get used to eating unhealthy junk food.
Swedish researchers have found that the availability of high concentrations of polystyrene particles in seawater makes them addictive to seabass fry.
Their article about this was published in the journal Science.
As a result, this slows down their growth and makes them more vulnerable to predators, scientists believe.
Researchers are calling for a ban on the use of plastic microbeads in cosmetic products.
In recent years, there have been more and more alarming signs of an increase in the concentration of plastic waste in the oceans.
Juveniles of marine fish prefer plastic to zooplankton
According to a study published last year, up to 8 million tons of plastic enter the oceans every year.
Under the influence of ultraviolet radiation, chemical processes and mechanical destruction under the impact of waves, this plastic debris quickly disintegrates into small particles.
Particles smaller than 5 mm are called microplastics. The term also includes microbeads used in cosmetic products such as scrubs, exfoliating products, or cleansing gels.
Biologists have long warned that these microparticles can accumulate in the digestive system of marine animals and release toxic substances.
Swedish researchers conducted a series of experiments in which they analyzed the growth of seabass fry by feeding them plastic microparticles at various concentrations.
In the absence of such particles, about 96% of the eggs were successfully transformed into fry. In water reservoirs with a high concentration of microplastics, this indicator decreased to 81%.
Those fry that hatched in such trashy water turned out to be smaller, moved more slowly and had a poorer ability to navigate their habitat, says team leader Dr. Una Lonnstedt of the University of Uppsala.
Up to 8 million tons of plastic enter the oceans annually, but under the influence of the forces of nature, it quickly collapses.
When encountering predators, about 50% of fry grown in clean water survived for 24 hours. On the other hand, fry raised in tanks with the highest concentration of microparticles died during the same period.
But the most unexpected for scientists was the data on dietary preferences, which changed in the new conditions of fish habitat.
"All the fry were able to feed on zooplankton, but they preferred to eat plastic particles. It is likely that plastic has a chemical or physical attractiveness that stimulates the feeding reflex in fish," says Dr. Lonnstedt.
"Roughly speaking, plastic makes them think that this is some kind of highly nutritious food. This is very similar to the behavior of adolescents who love to stuff their stomachs with all sorts of nonsense," - adds the scientist.
The authors of the study associate the decrease in the number of fish species such as seabass and pike in the Baltic Sea over the past 20 years with an increase in the mortality of juveniles of these species. They argue that if plastic microparticles do affect the growth and behavior of fish juveniles in different species, then this will have a profound effect on marine ecosystems.
In the United States, the use of plastic microbeads in cosmetic products is already prohibited, and in Europe there is a growing fight for a similar ban.
“This isn't about pharmaceutical products, it's just about cosmetics - mascara and some lipsticks,” says Dr. Lonnstedt.
In Britain, there are also voices at the government level who propose to introduce a unilateral ban on microbeads earlier than this will be done in the European Union.
This issue will be discussed next week at a meeting of the Environmental Assessment Committee of the House of Commons.
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