This is the article that I read: HERE
I’ve always had a small love for ocean life. However, from a distance as I’m petrified of going in the ocean and seeing the animals in person. When I saw this tweet I had no idea what the animal was in the photo and wanted to find out. I also was intrigued by the title of the article. “Plastic pollution: Scientists’ plea in the threat to ocean giants” is such a shocking title to read. These huge animals seem incredibly powerful and large that people probably think nothing could harm them however after reading this article it’s clear that’s not the case.
Within the Trends in Ecology and Evolution they claim that these massive creatures eat hundreds of pieces of plastic everyday. The article says that there are chemicals within the plastic that’s eaten which is extremely harmful to species. It could potentially harm the reproduction cycle. Animals are not able to differentiate the difference between plankton and plastic so most of the time they’re trying to eat they end up just eating plastic that contains zero nutrition.
After reading this, it has really spiked my interest in sea life and how humans are slowly destroying their habitat. I couldn’t imagine how animals feel having trash everywhere in their “home”. I would be the equivalent of having trash embedded in our food. I really hope we can somehow create something that is able to filter out the microscopic bits of plastic.
