The estimate of how much plastic whales eat: 10 million pieces per day
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Whales swimming on the California coast can ingest up to 10 million pieces of microplastics per day. This alarming estimate was made by scientists at Stanford University and California State University, who published an article in the journal Nature to make known the results of their work. The team, led by Shirel Kahane-Rapport And Matthew Savoca, has developed models to calculate how much microplastic these mammals can ingest on a daily basis. The whales, which include blue whales, humpback whale And fin whalesare particularly at risk of ingestion of microplastics due to their filtering behavior, immense prey consumption and habitat overlap with polluted regions.
Ecosystem
How much plastic does perch eat? Experts have measured the microplastics in the lakes
by Fiammetta Cupellaro
Researchers combined California Current microplastic data with high-resolution foraging behavior measurements of 191 specimens. These animals, the authors explain, feed mainly on depth of 50-250 meterswhere most of the microplastics. Based on the measurements, the scientists estimated that blue whales could consume about 10 million pieces of microplastics per daywhile the humpback whale they could ingest up to four million fragments every day.
Health
Thus microplastics enter the food chain
by Mariella Bussolati
Although the long-term effects of taking these substances are not known, scientists suggest that whales may be running physiological and toxicological risks due to microplastics. These results, the experts conclude, highlight that microplastics represent an important stress factor for the whale population, so in the next investigations it will be essential to understand the consequences of microplastics on marine fauna.
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