Scientists have found plastic in the stomachs of the deepest marine organisms known to humans.
Newcastle University students have recently discovered plastics in the stomach of lysianassid amphipods (a creature that lives 6000 meters below the Japanese and Chilean waters.) Students were studying the insides of this family of amphipods.
Despite that, the young scientists found plastic fibres, like nylon, in most of the creatures they studied. This means that all of our earth’s wildlife are being affected. The ‘sea fleas’ are food for fish and other small predators. But those fish are a lot further down the food chain. This means the micro-plastics could affect the food chain much higher up than the amphipods. But, this is extremely bad for us, as these small creatures are low in the food chain, meaning we are consuming plastic as part of our ‘fishy’ diet. As we all enjoy the occasional fish and chips, we all know that it has a dangerous amount of fats. But, it would be even worse if we continued including plastic to our classic chips.
By Sophie and Eva, Year 7