How Much Microplastic Can Kill Ocean Life?

"Researchers have confirmed what environmentalists have long suspected: it takes very little plastic to kill marine animals. For an Atlantic puffin, eating less than three sugar cubes of plastic means a 90% chance of dying. A loggerhead sea turtle can die from about as much plastic as two baseballs, and a harbor porpoise from about a soccer ball's worth of microplastics. These are the deadly amounts for animals living in oceans where over 11 million metric tons of plastic are dumped each year."

"In the study, one in five animals had eaten plastic: 47% of sea turtles, 35% of seabirds, and 12% of marine mammals. Almost half of these animals were already threatened or endangered species. This research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the most thorough study yet on how plastic ingestion kills marine life. But even if you never visit the ocean, you should care:"

Less than three sugar cubes of ingested plastic yields a 90% chance of death for an Atlantic puffin. A loggerhead sea turtle can die from about the volume of two baseballs of plastic, and a harbor porpoise from roughly a soccer ball's worth of microplastics. Oceans receive over 11 million metric tons of plastic annually. Approximately one in five marine animals examined had ingested plastic: 47% of sea turtles, 35% of seabirds, and 12% of marine mammals; nearly half of those were threatened or endangered. Plastic particles accumulating in human bodies have been linked to heart attacks, strokes, and other health problems.

Read at Earth911