Eating just a handful of plastic can be fatal for marine animals, a study finds

""What surprised me the most is how little it takes to become deadly," said Britta Baechler, a co-author of the study and director of Ocean Plastics Research at the Ocean Conservancy. Less than three sugar cubes' worth of plastic could kill an Atlantic puffin. Two baseballs' worth would do in a sea turtle. The equivalent of a soccer ball is enough to off a seal or dolphin. "For seabirds, ingesting just six tiny pieces of rubber, each smaller than about the size of a pea, can result in a 90 percent chance of death," Baechler said."

"To determine the amounts and the kinds of plastic that marine animals were eating, researchers compiled the autopsy data of more than 10,000 deceased animals from 53 studies that had been conducted around the world. Among the victims: an albatross with an entire plastic bottle in its digestive tract. "In another instance, there was a sperm whale that had died from eating an entire bucket that broken up in its gut and caused an obstruction," Baechler said."

Autopsy data from more than 10,000 deceased marine animals across 53 datasets worldwide show that very small amounts of visible plastic can be lethal to seabirds, sea turtles, seals, dolphins, and whales. Less than three sugar cubes’ worth of plastic can kill an Atlantic puffin; two baseballs’ worth can kill a sea turtle; and about a soccer ball’s volume can kill a seal or dolphin. Ingesting six tiny rubber pieces smaller than a pea can yield a 90 percent chance of death for seabirds. Documented cases include an albatross with a plastic bottle and a sperm whale that died after a bucket fragmented and obstructed its gut. The analysis focused on macroplastics and did not assess microplastics or entanglement impacts.

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