FastCoexist – Ocean Plastic Pollution Is Like Junk Food For Fish – Young fish like to gobble up plastic particles like it’s candy, and it’s killing them.

“…Each year, the world produces around 300 million metric tons of plastic, a number that is quickly growing. An estimated 8 million tons of that ends up in waterways and eventually the ocean…Because plastic tends to accumulate in shallow water next to coastlines—where fish grow up—it’s likely that young fish are exposed to higher levels of it…researchers found that fish exposed to the most plastic were smaller, less active, and more likely to spend time completely motionless. Even worse, they no longer responded naturally to predators—so they were more likely to be eaten…”

• Citation – Environmentally relevant concentrations of microplastic particles influence larval fish ecology – Science  03 Jun 2016: Vol. 352, Issue 6290, pp. 1213-1216 DOI: 10.1126/science.aad8828