Most of the plastic is consumed by animals along with their prey.
American scientists estimated that blue whales from eat up to 10 million microplastic particles per day. These data mean that environmental pollution poses a greater threat to these animals than previously thought, reports Science Alert.
During the study, scientists placed beacons on 191 blue, humpback and fin whales living off the coast of California. . Whales usually feed at a depth of 50 to 250 meters. According to Shirel Kahane-Rapport, a researcher at California State University, it has the highest concentration of plastic in the water.
Also read: DW: Plastic and global warming – the main threats to the world's oceans
After of this, scientists estimated the amount of food that the whales ate and built three different models. In the most likely scenario, blue whales ate up to 10 million microplastic particles per day. During the 90-120 day annual feeding season, that's more than a billion particles per year.
The largest animal to ever live on Earth is probably also the largest consumer of plastic. Scientists estimate that blue whales eat about 43.6 kilograms of microplastics per day.
Humpback whales, scientists estimate, eat four million pieces of microplastics per day.
Maybe It may seem that most of the plastic is consumed by whales in the water, but the study showed that this is not the case. About 99% of microplastics are eaten by animals with their prey, it is already contained in it.
Scientists note that this fact should concern humans, because we also eat fish that live in the sea, and therefore consume microplastic along with it.
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Earlier, scientists announced that a new species of whale, Rice's whale, which was discovered last year, is already under threat of extinction.
