[lurquer]

Bits of plastic can form blockages? Says who? I seriously doubt it.

A bit of plastic — to a fish gut - is no different than a pebble, chunk of coral, bit of bone, etc.

Littering is bad.

And litter that doesn’t naturally decompose is annoying.

But, it’s an aesthetics problem. Plastic is harmless (despite the occasional picture of a turtle with a straw in its nose...)

Over time, whether is decomposes or not, it will be covered with sediment and gone from the ecosystem.

[woodruffw]

> A bit of plastic — to a fish gut - is no different than a pebble, chunk of coral, bit of bone, etc.

There's reasonable empirical evidence that plastic accumulation in fish causes them to reproduce less than they otherwise would[1]. The prevailing theory is that most plastics leach at least some of their chemicals in seawater.

[1]: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/from-fish-to-huma...

[nicoffeine]

Don’t worry, the only people saying that are the scientists who are studying it.

“When Browne experimented with blue mussels back in 2008, many researchers thought animals would just excrete any microplastics they ate, like “unnatural fiber,” as Browne called it—but he wasn’t so sure. He tested the idea by placing mussels in water tanks spiked with fluorescent-tagged microplastic particles smaller than a human red blood cell, then moved them into clean water. For six weeks he harvested the shellfish to see if they had cleared the microplastics. “We actually ran out of mussels,” Browne says. The particles “were still in them at the end of those trials.”

The mere presence of microplastics in fish, earthworms and other species is unsettling, but the real harm is done if microplastics linger—especially if they move out of the gut and into the bloodstream and other organs. Scientists including Browne have observed signs of physical damage, such as inflammation, caused by particles jabbing and rubbing against organ walls. Researchers have also found signs ingested microplastics can leach hazardous chemicals, both those added to polymers during production and environmental pollutants like pesticides that are attracted to the surface of plastic, leading to health effects such as liver damage. Marco Vighi, an ecotoxicologist at the IMDEA Water Institute in Spain, is one of several researchers running tests to see what types of pollutants different polymers pick up and whether they are released into the freshwater and terrestrial animals that eat them. The amount of microplastics in lakes and soils could rival the more than 15 trillion tons of particles thought to be floating in the ocean’s surface alone.”

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/from-fish-to-huma...

[lurquer]

Ha.

Let me know when the ocean has .5grams of nano-sized plastic particles per Liter.

That would be around 300000000000000 Tons of plastic, all in the form of nano-sized particles.

Then — and only then — would you begin to see an effect on Mussels.

But, of course, long before that, the world would have ended.

[hactually]

That's interesting - is that from a paper? Would love to read it as it's contradictory to others I've read

[lurquer]

It’s from the article (and study cited therein) cited in the post I responded to.

Apparently few actually read the ‘evidence’ they knee-jerk cite to.

Specifically, the Brown study examined mussels who were kept in containers with 0.51 g/L of micro particles of plastic. And, surprise surprise, some of the micro particles found their way into the mussels. Shocker. That density of particles is nonexistent in nature. But, as long as you get the grant money...

The same Scientific America article also makes this claim:

“In a surprising study published in March, not only did fish exposed to microplastics reproduce less but their offspring, who weren’t directly exposed to plastic particles, also had fewer young, suggesting the effects can linger into subsequent generations.”

But, if you read the study it (a) has nothing to do with fish, but rather plankton, and (b) the exposure to micro plastics INCREASED the number of offspring!

People should read the studies. But, it’s easier to smugly downvote.