Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Trash Found in Fish

This morning ABC's Good Morning America revisited the problem of the North Pacific Gyre - that large, Texas-sized collection of plastic out in the Pacific Ocean.  In the past, they had found plastic particles in fish - the fish actually feast on the plastic, mistaking it for food.  However, up until now, they had not found the particles in fish that humans consume.  That has changed as they have discovered plastic has been ingested by Mahi Mahi, a very popular item on menus.  This serious issue isn't limited to the Pacific.  This Christian Science Monitor article describes a "plastic soup" in the Atlantic Ocean as well.  It would be easy to blame these masses on corporate dumping, but that's not the case.  The plastic originates on land and is washed out or blown out to sea.  It is consumers who litter who are responsible, showing us that actions that seem little or insignificant can amount to serious problems.

1 comment:

Deanna said...

This totally unnecessary problem aggravates the heck out of me. Especially when I hear people say things like, "Well, I'm not throwing my trash in the ocean so it isn't my fault."