Blue whales consume up to 10 million pieces of microplastic every day, research estimated Tuesday, suggesting that the omnipresent pollution poses a bigger danger to the world’s largest animal than previously thought.
Blue whales consume up to 10 million pieces of microplastic every day, research estimated Tuesday, suggesting that the omnipresent pollution poses a bigger danger to the world’s largest animal than previously thought.
The tiny fragments of plastic have been found everywhere from the deepest oceans to the highest mountains, and even inside human organs and blood.
Now a modeling study published in the journal Nature Communications has estimated how much is being ingested by whales.
A US-led research team put tags on 191 blue, fin and humpback whales that live off the coast of California to observe their movements.
« It’s basically like an Apple Watch, just on the back of a whale, » said Shirel Kahane-Rapport, a researcher at California State University, Fullerton and the study’s first author.
