Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
are mistaken for food and ingested by a wide range of marine animals
(Ryan et al., 2009; van Franeker et al., 2011), sea turtles (Bugoni et al.,
2001), and fish (Jantz et al., 2013; Lusher et al., 2012; Possatto et al., 2011).
Most extensively documented cases of ingestion are for marine bird species
(Tanaka et al., 2013). About a third of the fish sampled (across 10 species)
both in the English Channel (Lusher et al., 2012) as well as the North Pacific
Central Gyre (Boerger et al., 2010) region showed 1.9-6 pieces of plastics
per animal. While plastics are not toxic in the conventional sense, they not
only cause physical obstruction of the digestive tract but also their presence
in the stomach elicits a sense of satiation, discouraging feeding (Wright et
al.,2013). Thiscaninterfere withgrowthandreproduction oftheseanimals.
Recent data from studies on fish (
Medka
) suggest, however, that ingestion
of even virgin plastics can also result in histological changes associated with
stress (Rochman et al., 2013b). A summary of the different marine species
known to ingest plastics is given in
Table 10.2
.
