When people tend to think of plastic pollution and the oceans, they usually think of discarded soda bottles and containers washing up on our shores.
But the issue of microplastics, which are much smaller and less obvious to the human eye, are an equally big issue, but just for the oceans themselves, but also for the creatures who live in them and the food chains we rely on.
In an interview, Ocean Conservancy’s associate director for oceans plastics research, Dr. Britta Baechler said because of their size, microplastics are prevelent in the entire marine eco-system.
Dr. Baechler said scientists have found tiny pieces of plastic in nearly 1,300 sea creatures to date, including some as small as plankton and as large as blue whales.
She added laboratory studies have shown exposure to microplastics can have long-ranging impacts on species, from cell damage to behavioural issues.
Animals who encounter plastics in the ocean are also at risk of entanglement, suffocation, and lethal injuries, among other impacts.
But Dr Baechler said there is a growing body of research has shown that humans regularly ingest plastic particles in our daily lives from breathing and consuming foods- seafood being the most heavily researched to date-, but she added there is also evidence to show other foodstuffs may be equally contaminated.
Earlier this year, researchers at Ocean Conservancy and University of Toronto published a report which estimates that American adults could be consuming up to 3.8 million microplastics per year from various sources of protein.
They found microplastic particles in 88% of protein food samples tested, including seafood, pork, beef, chicken and plant-based meat alternatives.
“We also looked at the processed versions of fish that you buy from a supermarket, which contained microplastics as well,” she told me.
She said when comparing seafoods, terrestrial proteins and plant-based proteins, they found all three categories were statistically equally contaminated with microplastics.
In addition, they also found more heavily processed products contain more microplastics than minimally processed foods.
“We found it very interesting that there’s no difference in microplastic contamination levels, between seafood, terrestrial proteins and plant-based proteins,” added Dr. Baechler.
“To me, that supports a real pressing call to action to start eliminating microplastic sources, because these things are problematic in our environment and may even impact our health in the long term.”
In an interview, Dr. Kim Warner, a senior scientist at Oceana, said there are estimated to be 171 trillion pieces of microplastics of microplastics floating in the ocean, but even more microplastics have been found at every depth, including in the sediment.
Dr. Warner said microplastics can break off from larger items in ocean and can be anything from five millimetres wide to pieces “you can hardly see”.
She told me scientists are very concerned about how microplastics are impacting ocean life.
“Scientists are also looking at how microplastics affect animals in the ocean. Bigger plastics are already a threat to many species, but microplastics can obstruct a tiny fish’s ability to feed.”
But Dr. Warner added the ongoing UN negotiations around a treaty on plastic waste are a “golden opportunity” to tackle this issue.
“We are just making far too many plastics, and we can’t handle all the waste,” she said.
“We really need to stop the accelerating exponential production of plastic, and chemically simplify the plastics, so that when they break up, they are not quite as toxic to everything they come into contact with.”
Dr. Lisa Erdle, director of science and innovation at the non-profit 5 Gyres said in an email the increase in ocean microplastics seen in their research is tied to an exponential rise in plastic production.
She added the “smog of microplastics” in the ocean is the result of various sectors of plastic use in society from microfibers in clothing to tire dust from cars.
“There are hundreds of polymers, and thousands of chemicals,” she told me.
“Rather than focusing on downstream solutions like cleanup, we need to look upstream to implement science-backed solutions that address the many sectors of plastic use.”
