Spill on marine fish contaminated with toxic plastic

New research from scientists from the National University of Ireland in Galway shows that for every four fish off the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, nearly 3 are infected with toxic plastic.

Ominously, this dangerous situation can affect animals and even humans who ingest.

Indiscriminate human waste can find its way into fish, which can be harmful to humans.(Photo: STOCK).

The Daily Mail page on Feb. 20 said scientists conducted a total of 233 dead fish in the Northwest Atlantic, resulting in 73% of fish from 600m depth contaminated with toxic plastic.

Among these research specimens, a large number of small fish are often found at depths from 200-1,000m below the water surface. This type of fish known as the middle-tier fish is usually the bait of tuna, mackerel and other seafood. Therefore, the possibility is not small is the toxic plastic said above can be transmitted to humans.

According to the head of research, Alina Wieczorek, seabed fish often rise to the surface of the sea at night to eat floating microorganisms and it seems that they are also exposed to plastic particles.

"Pollution of plastic particles is a good issue recently mentioned by the press and some governments are planning to ban hard plastic particles in cosmetics and cleaning agents," Ms. Wieczorek said.

The expert also added that the high incidence of plastic particles in the middle layer of fish in the study has serious consequences for the health of the marine ecosystem and the general biochemical cycle.

Plastic pellets are small plastic pellets of 0.5mm size with volume in the marine environment after decades of pollution. Sea creatures that ingest this toxin may experience significant problems such as enteritis, reduced appetite and weight loss.