The saying “you are what you eat” has likely caused many of us to think more carefully about what we consume. It’s less likely, however, that most of us think about what what we eat is eating. Scientists are concerned about this, as they have discovered a new risk associated with what some of our seafood is ingesting.
What’s happening?
As detailed by Phys.org, a team of scientists led by the University of Exeter was given new insight into plastic’s environmental risk after studying the “burden” of plastic in animal species recovered from the seafloor. All plastic eventually sinks to the seafloor, where there is a ton of biodiversity.
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, revealed scientists found that not only does sealife’s risk of exposure to plastic reflect local pollution levels, but it also depends on how species feed and interact with their close environment.
“We know very little about the global seafloor and the species living there,” Adam Porter from the University of Exeter told Phys.org. “But the impact of plastic pollution is growing even in parts of the deep ocean never seen by humans.”
The team found that animals living in areas with high levels of plastic pollution, like the