Gríðarleg plastmengun er frá sjókvíaeldi með lax. Meira eða minna allur búnaður í þessari starfsemi er úr plastefnum. Netapokarnir eru úr næloni, flothringirnir, sem þeir hanga á, eru úr plasti og á hverju kvíaavæði eru margir kílómetrar af plaströrum sem hörðum fóðurkögglum er blásið um út í sjókvíarnar. Við þetta, sem má líkja við sandblástur, losnar svo mikið örplast að skipta þarf um rör á 18 til 24 mánaða fresti, svo hratt eyðast þau upp.
Plastmengunin endar ekki aðeins í eldislöxunum heldur líka í líffærum villtra fiska, sjávarlífvera og fugla.
The Guardian fjallar um áhrif þessarar mengunar á sjávarfugla.
Ingesting plastic is leaving seabird chicks with brain damage “akin to Alzheimer’s disease”, according to a new study – adding to growing evidence of the devastating impact of plastic pollution on marine wildlife.
Analysis of young sable shearwaters, a migratory bird that travels between Australia’s Lord Howe Island and Japan, has found that plastic waste is causing damage to seabird chicks not apparent to the naked eye, including decay of the stomach lining, cell rupture and neurodegeneration.
Dozens of the chicks – which spend 90 days in burrows before making their first journey – were examined by researchers from the University of Tasmania. Many had mistakenly been fed plastic waste by their parents and built up high levels of plastic in their stomachs.
Blood tests indicated that the plastic pollution had left the chicks with severe health issues, disrupting the stomach, liver, kidneys and brain, according to the study published in the journal Science Advances.
…Shearwaters are among the bird species most affected by plastic pollution. Previous studies have found more than 400 pieces of plastic in a single shearwater chick, with plastic sometimes accounting for 5-10% of their total bodyweight.
While chicks are able to vomit up some of the plastic before they migrate, researchers said the sheer quantity meant it was unlikely that all birds could clear it. The young birds that were examined in the study had their stomachs pumped, meaning that they were able to start their migrations to the Sea of Japan without any plastic waste inside.
“It’s almost a death sentence for these chicks, which is unfortunate because they do look really fit and healthy. But knowing the condition which their body is in before they’re starting their migration, it’s quite challenging to imagine that they would make it to the other end,” said de Jersey.
Previous research has found that fewer than 60 multinationals are responsible for more than half of the world’s plastic pollution, with six responsible for a quarter of that.