Little Fish

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Plastic from the Almaciga beach, on the North Coast of the Canary island of Tenerife

micro plastics are found everywhere, on the earth, and yet we know surprisingly little about the risks for living organisms. Scientists are investigating now, a race to some of the great Unanswered Questions .

Daniella Hodgson is to dig a hole in The Sand on a windswept beach, sea birds wheel overhead. "Found it," she cries, threw down her spade.

she opens her hand to show a movement of the watt worm. Plucked from his underground cave, this humble creature, not unlike the proverbial Canary in a coal mine.

A guard for Plastic , The Worm ingest any particles of Plastic on it, while The Sand swallow, what can then the Food Chain will happen to birds and fish.

"We want to see how much Plastic The Island is potentially always at its shores - So What is in the sediments there are, and what animals eat," says Ms Hodgson, a PhD student at Royal Holloway , University of London.

"If you are exposed to more Plastic you are to eat more Plastic ? What types of plastics, what shapes, colors, sizes? And Then we can inform this kind of information, look at the experiments, the effects of ingestion of plastics on different animals. "

watt worm that lives in sand on Great Cumbrae , Scotland, The Beach in The Town of Millport

micro plastics, are usually referred to as a Plastic , the seeds smaller than 5mm, or about the size of a sesame seed. There are too many Unanswered Questions about the impact of these tiny Plastic parts, the larger Plastic waste, cosmetics, and clothing. What is not debatable, as far as micro plastics, traveled to The Planet in a few decades.

"are you absolutely anywhere," says Hodgson, who is to examine how Plastic is making its way into the marine ecosystems. "Micro plastics can be found in The Sea , in freshwater environments, in rivers and lakes, in the atmosphere, in the food. "

Multi-million-dollar-question

The Island of Great Cumbrae off Scotland's Ayrshire coast is a favourite haunt of day-trippers from the surrounding cities such as Glasgow. A ferry ride away from The Town of Largs, it is a haven for cyclists and walkers, as well as scientists at the research station on The Island . To see on a Boat Trip from The Bay how in the Plastic samples from The Waves , a Dolphin is with us for a while and swims on the side.

Plastic collected on Great Cumbrae

Even in this remote place, of Plastic visible on The Beach . Prof David Morritt, the Royal Holloway University research team points out of blue twine and bits of Plastic bottles that wash up with the algae in Kames Bay. Where It Comes from, is the "multi-million-dollar question," he says, holding a piece of blue string.

"We have just washed a look at some of the Plastic to The Beach -line here, and you can say, quite clearly, it is fishing string, or in fishing nets. Sometimes it is much more difficult. By identifying the type of polymer, the type of Plastic it is And Then by matching with the known uses of these polymers, you can sometimes guess where the Plastic is likely to come. "

From the, micro plastics, are among The Most widespread pollutants on The Planet , to the deepest parts of our oceans, the stomachs of whales and seabirds. The Explosion in the Plastic use in the last few decades is so large that micro plastics to the solid part of the earth's crust is sedimentary rock.

While studying rock sediments from the California coast, Dr. Jennifer Brandon, disturbing proof of how Our Love of Plastic leaves an indelible impression on The Planet .

"I found this exponential increase in micro plastics left in our sediment record, and the exponential increase in micro plastics, reflects almost perfectly to the exponential increase in Plastic production," she says. "The Plastic we use is always in The Ocean , and we leave them behind in our fossil record. "

the age of Plastic

The discovery suggests that, after The Bronze age and the Iron Age , we are now in the age of Plastic .

"over the decades, hundreds of years from now, Plastic is used, probably as a geological marker of what we Left Behind ," says Dr. Brandon, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. "We're basically littering The Ocean with chemically-laced oil. This is not a recipe for a very healthy ocean. "

the great unknown is how micro-plastics might be an impact on Living Things . In August, The World Health Organization (WHO) published the conclusion that, while the particle is in tap water and Bottled Water for an apparent health hazard, more research and evidence is required.

Dr. Brandon says, we need to know where the "Plastic -score" to land The Animals on our plates.

"These micro plastics are small enough to be eaten by plankton and coral polyps, and of filter-feeding mussels, but as they are bio-accumulating in the Food Chain ?", she says. "By the time you get to a huge fish that is, fish to eat Plastic or is it the food, thousands of small fish that are food to thousands of plankton, the food, the thousands of micro plastics.

"How High is the Plastic signature in something like a tuna from the time it is on your plate? And that is not always known. "

on The Surface

a few weeks after the Scotland trip, I will visit the laboratory at Royal Holloway , to see what collected in The Samples on The Island . Water samples and sediments were filtered to remove the Plastic , and examined under the microscope, together with Plastic found in marine animals. Hodgson says Plastic was found in all samples, including animals, but especially in Kames Bay on the South coast of The Island .

Daniella Hodgson in the laboratory at the Royal Holloway , University of London.

animals such as whales, dolphins and turtles eat large Plastic garbage such as Plastic bags, that can lead to Hunger, she says. But the many small bits of data that show more subtle effects from eating micro plastics.

"It may not be harming them, as they will kill you, but over time it could be cellular damage, it could impact on their energy balance and how you can deal with it, so over a long period could space it causes unpleasant effects on the whole line," says Daniella Hodgson, who is the co-operation with the Natural History Museum, London.

The answers to some of these questions, further research is. Others take to answer a long time.

"We know that there are a lot of micro Plastic , and we think you will find it wherever we look for him," says Dr. Brandon. "But the impact on the health and as it to scratch really animals and people affected, we are only just at The Surface of these questions. "

to follow Helen.

environment, royal holloway, university of london, pollution, ocean pollution, plastic pollution

Source of news: bbc.com