Thanks To Humans, Baby Fish Are Eating Plastic Because There's 7 Times More Of It Than Fish

From the deepest oceans to the highest peaks, plastic pollution has wreaked havoc in our planet and now, the effects are all too apparent.

Despite repeated warnings about the use of plastic, there's no concrete solution to this menace which follows when it gets disposed, the worst repercussion are possibly in ocean waters.

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The plastic waste has been choking marine life and leave alone mitigation, the full extent of the devastation is only just surfacing.

More recently, researchers led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced a worrying state of baby fish off the coast of Hawaii.

According to the study, there are minuscule plastic particles that cluster at the ocean¡¯s surface. These harmful plastic pieces mix themselves with baby fish food. The larval fishes end up consuming these particles, endangering their lives.

In a press release, Jonathan Whitney, the co-author of the study, said, ¡°We were shocked to find that so many of our [water] samples were dominated by plastics.¡±

¡°We believe our research and our findings are not just isolated but may be a window into other locations around the world,¡± said co-lead study author Jamison Gove, a research oceanographer at NOAA.

Jamison Gove, a research oceanographer for NOAA in Honolulu and co-lead of the study, said the study started out as an exploration of the surface slick habitat.

¡°We hadn¡¯t anticipated how much plastics we would find. Once we started sampling and finding a lot of plastics, there was no way to ignore them,¡± Gove said. ¡°The fact that larval fish are surrounded by and ingesting non-nutritious plastics, at their most vulnerable life stage, is certainly cause for alarm.¡±

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Plastic ingested by fish larvae could also be making its way into anything that eats them, including us. ¡°Because it¡¯s happening at the base of the food chain, there¡¯s this potential domino effect,¡± said study co-lead author Jonathan Whitney, a marine ecologist for the Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research and NOAA.

The larval fish nurseries off the coast of Hawaii are hotbeds of plastic pollution, with trash pieces outnumbering actual fish seven to one. As a result, baby fish looking for food sometimes chew down on tiny ¡°prey-sized¡± plastic instead.

Researchers warned that 'no amount of plastic is acceptable going into the ocean' even a little is enough to choke these delicate creatures to death.